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
One study by the Economic Policy Institute found that if state and local spending after the Great Recession had grown at a pace similar to previous recovery periods, unemployment rates would have reached their pre-recession levels by early 2013 instead of 2017.
Dollars and Sense
January 6, 2021
That’s because just under half of Americans, 49.6%, got their health insurance through their employer in 2019, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Without a job, many Americans are left without health insurance and need to pay for medical expenses out-of-pocket. In fact, because of layoffs during the pandemic, as many as 12 million Americans have lost their health coverage, according to the latest estimate in August by the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
January 6, 2021
Support for Black businesses — The Economic Policy Institute stated in 2017 that average wealth for white families was seven times higher than average wealth for Black families. By supporting Black businesses, you are also supporting Black families, and helping to decrease the gap. The current list of Arlington Black businesses is paltry, but it is a start.
ARL Now
January 6, 2021
As the Economic Policy Institute explained last year, the passage of Prop 22 gave “digital platform companies a free pass to misclassify their workers” as independent contractors rather than employees, enabling them to exclude gig workers from basic employment protections including minimum wage, health insurance, and other benefits.
Common Dreams
January 6, 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.”
Bloomberg.com
January 6, 2021
Between 1978 and 1029, pay for American CEOs increased 1,167%, compared to less than 14% for the average worker, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.
Business Insider
January 6, 2021
H-2A farmworkers, who are hired to help with seasonal harvests, make up 10% of farmworkers in the United States. Last year, there were 150,000 H2-A farmworkers in the field from January through July. According to the Economic Policy Institute, it’s a decrease from 2019, which had 257,667 H2-A certified jobs.
WVIK
January 6, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the buying power of the $7.25 hourly wage has declined by 17% since 2009, the equivalent of the loss of $3,000 a year in wages for a minimum-wage worker.
Wilkes Barre Citizens' Voice
January 6, 2021