Meanwhile, Battle and others worry that Black professionals are more likely to experience layoffs during the crisis than their white counterparts. Even in a strong economy, Black workers with college degrees are more likely to be unemployed than white workers with a similar education, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
SHRM
February 5, 2021
Policymakers can look to the recent past to better understand the need for public sector investments and job quality protections. An analysis from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the economic recovery following the Great Recession was significantly slower as a result of federal aid to state and local governments drying up too early.19 Unsurprisingly, cities and states were more successful at maintaining public jobs when aid was longer-term and included job retention requirements.20 Indeed, policymakers can help ensure that working families benefit by making needed investments in the public sector now.
- Olugbenga Ajilore, “White men are doing mostly fine without more economic relief from Washington, but just about everyone else is suffering,” MarketWatch, October 30, 2020, available at https://www.marketwatch.com/story/white-men-are-doing-mostly-fine-without-more-economic-relief-from-washington-but-just-about-everyone-else-is-suffering-11604069374#; Michael Madowitz, Anne Price, and Christian E. Weller, “Public Work Provides Economic Security for Black Families and Communities” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2020), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2020/10/23/492209/public-work-provides-economic-security-black-families-communities/; Jeffrey Keefe, “Public-sector workers are paid less than their private-sector counterparts—and the penalty is larger in right-to-work states,” Economic Policy Institute, January 14, 2016, available at https://www.epi.org/publication/public-sector-workers-are-paid-less-than-their-private-sector-counterparts-and-its-much-worse-in-right-to-work-states/.
- David Cooper, “Without federal aid, many state and local governments could make the same budget cuts that hampered the last economic recovery,” Economic Policy Institute, May 27, 2020, available https://www.epi.org/blog/without-federal-aid-many-state-and-local-governments-could-make-the-same-budget-cuts-that-hampered-the-last-economic-recovery/.
Center for American Progress
February 5, 2021
Ben Zipperer, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, told Insider such an impact would be minimal, at worst, and arguably beneficial to businesses as well as workers, with higher wages reducing costly employee turnover.
Business Insider
February 5, 2021
“To be candid, I think that his affiliation with the building trades serves him well in the confirmation process because those nominees do tend to fare a little bit better than other labor-affiliated nominees,” said Celine McNicholas, director of government affairs at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “It’s an area where Republicans are not automatically a ‘no.’”
Bloomberg Law
February 5, 2021
TANF recipients looking for work in the current pandemic face even worse prospects than parents in the studies reported here, so it is even more important that states consider ways to improve their TANF work programs. Women, people of color, and lower-income workers make up disproportionate shares of the employment sectors most deeply harmed by the pandemic. According to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute, the employment decline in the pandemic was twice as large for Black and Latina women as for white women and men. (See Figure 4.)
Economic Policy Institute, “Chart: A more comprehensive look at employment losses among women,” October 20, 2020, https://www.epi.org/chart/gender-disparities-figure-a-a-more-comprehensive-look-at-employment-losses-among-women-change-in-employment-population-ratio-by-gender-race-ethnicity-feb-to-sept-2020/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=a9e285a531-.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
February 5, 2021
Research by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that if the minimum wage was raised to $15 by 2015 wages would increase for 21 percent of the U.S. workforce — that’s nearly 32 million workers across the country.
The impact of raising the minimum wage also varies greatly by congressional district, according to a report released by EPI last week.
Nevada Current
February 5, 2021
Elise Gould and Melat Kassa, “Young workers hit hard by the COVID-19 economy,” Economic Policy Institute, October 14, 2020, https://www.epi.org/publication/young-workers-covid-recession/.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
February 5, 2021
Now, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows the kind of impact a national $15/hr minimum wage would have on our communities: 32 million workers would see a raise – more than a fifth of all U.S. workers.
Fight for 15
February 5, 2021
The gender pay gap could be somewhat alleviated by an increase in minimum wage. According to the Economic Policy Institute, raising the minimum wage would give 20 million women a raise, a figure that includes 26.7 percent of employed women. States that have a higher minimum wage have significantly lower rates of gender pay disparity, even more reason to increase minimum wage nationally.
The Daily Iowan
February 5, 2021
Mr. Biden isn’t out of options if the Senate won’t go along, however. He has the power to unilaterally and directly raise pay for federal contractors by raising their wage floor to $15 an hour, which would affect at least a quarter million Americans, according to an estimate Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, shared with The Times. And the ripple of effects of such an action will reverberate throughout the American work force.
The New York Times
February 5, 2021