In 2019, the median Black household earned just 61 cents for every dollar of income for the median Caucasian household, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Tuckson noted that the pandemic’s devastating economic effects are likely to widen the wage gap for Black workers for years to come and magnify health inequities.
City Beat
January 7, 2021
On January 13, the Future of the Middle Class Initiative at Brookings will host an event with leading policy experts from the Urban Institute, the Economic Policy Institute, the Niskanen Center, and Brookings. These scholars will present different options and ideas for state and local funding reform and participate in a panel discussion on the different advantages of their respective plans.
Brookings Institution
January 7, 2021
Others criticized the rule for its potential financial impact on workers. According to a tweet from Heidi Schierholz, a former DOL official and director of policy at the think tank Economic Policy Institute, the rule could cost U.S. workers “at least $3.7 billion annually.“
Transport Dive
January 7, 2021
Backstory: Even most older Americans report that they don’t have enough money saved for retirement, with the median family holding just $7,800 in 401(k)s, IRAs and other self-directed accounts, according to a 2019 study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Axios
January 7, 2021
While Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said the rule brings “long-needed clarity” for workers and employers, labor advocates have argued that it makes it easier for gig companies like Uber (UBER), Lyft (LYFT), and Doordash (DASH) to classify full-time employees as contractors. In comments submitted after the rule was proposed, the Economic Policy Institute calculated that the rule could cost employees $3.7 billion in lost pay and benefits every year.
Yahoo
January 7, 2021
Labor Department rules reducing workers’ pay. One rule “gives employers of tipped workers a loophole allowing them to capture more than $700 million annually from workers,” according to the Economic Policy Institute. Another rule freezes foreign farmworkers’ wages.
Newsweek
January 7, 2021
The proposal received 1,825 comments, including from the Economic Policy Institute, which estimates that the rule will cost workers — from delivery and transportation workers to those who work at call centers, in agriculture, home health care and elsewhere — at least $3.7 billion a year in pay and benefits.
MarketWatch
January 7, 2021
“Despite the fact that misclassification causes significant income loss for workers, the Department of Labor failed to quantify exactly how much workers stand to lose under this rule—a direct violation of the law. However, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that this rule will cost workers more than $3 billion each year. Moreover, social insurance programs, such as Unemployment Insurance, would take a $750 million hit each year, leaving workers even more vulnerable right in the midst of an economic crisis.
U.S. House Education and Labor Committee
January 7, 2021
“It is a big deal already because we’re seeing over a third of the unemployed have now been long-term unemployed,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “That’s going to be continuing to rise.”
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette
January 7, 2021