Additionally, the pandemic has also significantly impacted education. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the economic shocks following this economic recession and multiple natural disasters, such as Hurricane Zeta, have led to extreme cuts in education budgets. This shows detrimental effects on education outcomes and test scores. To uplift children and reduce educational inequities, a three-step course was created to help by reliving, recovering, and rebuilding our community.
Medium
January 15, 2021
The need across the nation is extreme, with Covid-19 cases rising and the U.S. death toll nearing 390,000. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) noted Thursday that “another 1.2 million people applied for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits last week, including 965,000 people who applied for regular state UI and 284,000 who applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).”
“There are now 26.8 million workers who are either unemployed, otherwise out of work because of the virus, or have seen a drop in hours and pay because of the pandemic,” Heidi Shierholz, EPI senior economist and director of policy, explained in a blog post for the think tank. “Further, we started losing jobs again in December; layoffs are rising and the virus is surging.”
Common Dreams
January 15, 2021
The outbreak of Covid-19 sent the unemployment rate skyrocketing. Front-line workers stepped up to ensure Americans stayed healthy, teachers adapted to online teaching, and businesses provided innovative services to stay afloat. As of July 2020, 24.5 million Americans were unemployed or otherwise out of work following the outbreak of the pandemic, the Economic Policy Institute reported. One in four workers have had difficulty paying their bills during the pandemic, according to August data from Pew Research Center. Over the summer, the economy was slowly bouncing back. The United States added 9.3 million jobs by July, MarketWatch reported.
Forbes
January 15, 2021
Past research from the Brookings Institution and Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has shown that infrastructure investment can boost the economy. The EPI paper found that the return on infrastructure investment is large and could boost productivity.
Daily Caller
January 15, 2021
The EITC is a refundable tax credit available to low-income families who have income from work. According to research presented by the Economic Policy Institute, the program “dramatically reduces child poverty, encourages single mothers to participate in the formal economy, and has important positive effects on a range of health, educational, and child developmental outcomes.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
January 15, 2021
These victories can be celebrated, but the struggle continues. Applying the Congressional Budget Office Consumer Price Index updated to 2024, the Economic Policy Institute projects that the cost of living in all but 3 states will require a wage of at least $15 an hour and as high as $20-$25 in many states. This includes Pennsylvania where currently the minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour. Is it any wonder that Philadelphia has the highest poverty rate of any major city in the country? Isn’t it clear why food insecurity is a common problem in the U.S., when food costs have nearly doubled over the past 10 years, but wages remain stagnant and at a poverty level?
Mundo Obrero Workers World
January 15, 2021
By the Economic Policy Institute’s count, 26.8 million Americans have lost work or are currently out of work due to Covid-19.
Courthouse News Service
January 15, 2021
The two also cited a recent Economic Policy Institute report that said that Black workers make up the majority of essential workers, and said that they are not being protected because of the 2013 law.
WTXL
January 15, 2021
A May 2020 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that 60 percent of H-1B positions certified by the DOL in fiscal year 2019 were assigned the two lowest prevailing wage levels, which were “significantly lower” than the local median salaries surveyed for occupations.
“Employers can reap significant savings by selecting the two lowest wage levels instead of the Level 3 median wage or Level 4 above-median wage,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at EPI.
SHRM
January 15, 2021
This increase was described as “troubling” by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. On Thursday evening, President-elect Bidens said he will call for $1,400 stimulus checks and more vaccine funds in $1.9-trillion COVID-19 relief plan.
“The latest congressional relief bill is an important step toward addressing some of this pain, but it is not at the scale of the problem. I’m hopeful that more relief measures are on the horizon for increasingly desperate workers and their families. Senate Republicans forced the December bill to be far too small,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the EPI.
MarketWatch
January 15, 2021