I’ll do the math for you: that’s 1.13 million out-of-work Americans seeking benefits for the first time. If you think that’s an okay number, consider this from the Economic Policy Institute: it’s “the 47th straight week total initial (traditional) claims were greater than the worst week of the Great Recession.” The weekly number before we fell off the earth a year or so ago? Around 215,000.
Newsweek
February 16, 2021
The state level isn’t much better — just as states differ, so do counties. In Minnesota, a two-adult, two-child household in Wadena County would need 40% more money to meet the same needs in Carver County, for example, as can be determined by using the Economic Policy Institute’s online Family Budget Calculator.
Duluth News Tribune
February 16, 2021
A 2019 study from the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank based in Washington, D.C., found that public school teachers in every state are paid less than their similarly educated peers. Arizona teachers faced the worst salary penalty: 32.6 percent.
AZ Mirror
February 16, 2021
Business Insider
February 16, 2021
Waiters and bartenders in states where the tipped minimum wage was still $2.13 per hour made almost 17% less than their counterparts in other states, according to a 2017 study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Washington Times
February 16, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute writes that there are 1.6 unemployed workers for every job opening.
Business Insider
February 16, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute, which receives some of its funding from labor unions, analyzed the same congressional proposal as the CBO but found more workers would see higher wages.
It estimated the legislation would raise the pay of nearly 32 million workers and “meaningfully reduce the number of families in poverty.”
EPI also argues that a single, full-time worker without kids needs $15 an hour “to achieve a modest but adequate standard of living.”
FactCheck.org
February 16, 2021
For factual but dense reading go to “50 reasons the Trump administration is bad for workers” by the Economic Policy Institute, freely available on the web.
Moscow-Pullman Daily News
February 16, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a study that is already two years old, showing that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay for the top 350 firms in the country had grown by more than 1000% from 1978 to 2018.
What is more incredible is that the “bootstraps to riches” story is more and more a farce. The ratio of pay for a CEO to the average worker in 1965 was 20/1, meaning if an average worker was making $10,000, the average CEO was making $200,000. Definitely a disparity, but not crazy.
Huron Plainsman
February 16, 2021