Media clips

• Why Amazon insisted on an in-person union election during a raging pandemic
  Huffpost February 8, 2021
• U.S. economy added a disappointing 49,000 jobs in January

  The number of missing jobs remains enormous, about 9.9 million below the pre-pandemic level. Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute notes that the number of missing jobs is actually more than 12 million, if lost job growth over the last 11 months is taken into account

  The Fiscal Times February 8, 2021
• Friday’s letters: Biden’s priorities, federal minimum wage, Publix, more

  According to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, the reality is that the average age of minimum wage earners is 35, 59% are women, 28% have children, 54% work full time and the majority of those who would benefit are essential and front-line workers.

  Sarasota Herald Tribune February 8, 2021
• Weak jobs report shows we need more federal stimulus — now

  Economist Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute points out that we are “down 9.9 million jobs since February 2020,” just before the pandemic hit.  And if the economy had kept growing instead of collapsing, we should have 12.1 million more jobs than we do.

  Forbes February 8, 2021
• President Biden pledges to fix the racial wealth gap. Here are his plans

  Under Biden’s plan, the pay boost would give 31% of Black and 26% of Latino workers a raise, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning research group.

  CNBC February 8, 2021
• Biden taps New York Fed market chief as National Security Deputy

  Thea Lee, president of the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute, praised the NSC staffing moves, saying the White House is seeking to “put workers directly into the international economic policy decision making.”

  “Too often worker voices or worker advocates have been brought in after the policy is already formed, and it’s too late at that point to build in a worker rights component or a jobs lens,” said Lee, former AFL-CIO chief international economist and deputy chief of staff.

  Bloomberg February 8, 2021
• $15 minimum wage is a change long overdue

  As stated in an article from the Economic Policy Institute: “A $15 minimum wage would begin to reverse decades of growing pay inequality between the most underpaid workers and workers receiving close to the median wage, particularly along gender and racial lines. For example, minimum wage increases in the late 1960s explained 20% of the decrease in the Black–white earnings gap in the years that followed, whereas failures to adequately increase the minimum wage after 1979 account for almost half of the increase in inequality between women at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution.

  The Guilfordian February 5, 2021
• “Stolen” Back Wages Paid to NC Farmworkers in Class-Action Lawsuit

  In 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor investigated about one thousand cases of agricultural wage theft, according to the Economic Policy Institute. More than 200,000 workers traveled to the U.S. that year on H-2A visas, and some of their advocates believe wage-theft incidents are much higher.

  Public News Service February 5, 2021
• Another 779,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week
  It was also the 46th straight week that initial claims were higher than they were in the worst week of the Great Recession, wrote Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, on Twitter.
  CNN February 5, 2021
• A $15 federal minimum wage could be on the horizon but economists are mixed on how it may pass and its impact

  Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said minimum wage raises are exceptionally popular among the public. A 2019 Pew Research Survey found that two-thirds of Americans supported raising the minimum wage to $15.

  Business Insider February 5, 2021