Both Lyft and Uber have consistently cut drivers’ pay over the years. About a decade ago, when the companies first started out, drivers could reportedly expect to make roughly $20 per hour after expenses. Now that number is believed to have dropped by half. According to a 2019 study by the Economic Policy Institute, Uber drivers make around $9 per hour. Uber has disputed those findings. Both Lyft and Uber went public in 2019, but neither has yet made a profit.
CNET
January 25, 2021
The “essential workers” who are dying or going without pay so they can quarantine were already severely underpaid when the pandemic began, particularly those in the food industry. In 2019, the median wage for food and agricultural workers, for example, was just $13.12, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Meanwhile, just 8% of workers in this sector were represented by unions.
In These Times
January 25, 2021
The economic fallout at the onset of the pandemic resulted in the highest unemployment rate in at least 70 years. Now, as 2021 opens, the U.S. economy still has 9.8 million fewer jobs compared to last February, and 10.7 million workers are officially unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But some estimate that number to be much higher. The Economic Policy Institute calculated that around 26.8 million Americans, or 15.8 percent of the workforce, have lost employment, hours, or pay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
PBS Newshour
January 25, 2021
Biden had been an early and enthusiastic supporter of raising the minimum wage to $15 for all workers—not just those employed by the federal government—during the 2020 campaign. But he can’t do that without Congress, explains Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. His proposed $1.9 trillion economic relief package includes a provision raising the wage for all US workers to $15 an hour, including those who currently earn the federal minimum wage of just $7.25 an hour. It would also end the subminimum wage rate for tipped workers and employees with disabilities, which is as low as $2.13 an hour in some states.
Mother Jones
January 25, 2021
“I would say [the PRO Act] has very little chance of passing,” said Gordon Lafer, a labor studies professor at the University of Oregon and a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute. “So other than that, the question is what could the Biden-appointed Labor Board do unilaterally without needing legislation? There is a lot they could do that would be significant.”
CNBC
January 25, 2021
The real-world, material gains that UFCW and the Teamsters have won for their members are consistent with how unionization benefits frontline workers. And the expansion of unionization across market sectors tends to lift the boats of all workers, even if they are not unionized. According to a 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute:
- Union workers earn more. On average, a worker covered by a union contract earns 13.2 percent more in wages than a peer with similar education, occupation, and experience in a nonunionized workplace in the same sector.
- When union density is high, nonunion workers benefit from higher wages.
- As an economic sector becomes more unionized, nonunion employers pay more to retain qualified workers and norms of higher pay and better conditions become standard.
- Unions reduce inequality and are essential for low- and middle-wage workers’ ability to obtain a fair share of economic growth
- Union wage boosts are largest for low-wage workers, larger for black and Hispanic/Latin workers than for white workers, and larger for those with lower levels of education
- Unions help raise women’s pay and help close wage gaps for Black and Latin workers.
Forbes
January 25, 2021
In one April 2019 “advice memo,” Robb’s office said Uber drivers were independent contractors.
However, that conclusion “effectively robs Uber drivers of the rights under the NLRA to engage in collective action — such as organizing a union or collectively bargaining — to improve their working conditions,” according to researchers at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
MarketWatch
January 25, 2021
Before the pandemic, the Bureau of Labor Statistics already saw an upsurge in major strike activity in the years 2018-2019, according to the Economic Policy Institute, with an average of 455,400 workers nationwide being involved in major work stoppages.
The Economic Policy Institute also notes that strikes have continued in spite of the pandemic, triggered by poor pay and protections against the deadly COVID-19 virus. Work stoppages have occurred in industries covering retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and food service, as workers make demands for things like better wages or a sufficient supply of personal protective equipment.
Harper's Bazaar
January 25, 2021
The initial crunch began in the March when first time unemployment claims spiked. At the time the Economic Policy Institute released a report stating that “About half of potential UI applicants are actually receiving benefits.” This was due to the states’ systems being unable to cope with the inundation of claims. The report said that for every 10 people who said they successfully filed for unemployment benefits, three to four additional people tried to apply but could not get through the system to make a claim and an additional two people did not try to apply because it was too difficult to do so.
AS English
January 25, 2021
Overall, we suffered a net loss of more than 91,000 manufacturing plants and nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs since 1997. Nearly 1,800 factories have disappeared during the Trump administration between 2016 and 2018.
Trump’s 2017 tax cut added to those subsidies by enabling American firms to earn untaxed or minimally taxed profits so long as they invest offshore.
Minorities were hardest hit by the loss of factory jobs to China. Economist Robert E. Scott, who tracks trade issues for the Economic Policy Institute, estimated that 958,800 minority factory workers were displaced with wage-related losses of $10,485 per worker – and that was in 2011. Today jobs and pay are worse, not better, for blue-collar minority workers.
DC Report
January 25, 2021