In the four decades since inequality started growing (1979-2019), the “bottom 90 percent” saw wages grow 26 percent while the top 1 percent saw their wages grow 160 percent, according to a new Economic Policy Institute report. And for the tippy-top 0.1 percent, annual wages increased 345.2 percent.
The Western News
December 21, 2020
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) provides in-depth analysis of ag labor investigations over the past twenty years. The Federal Labor Standards Enforcement in Agriculture report notes that a vast majority of investigations uncovered labor violations. A relatively low number of problematic employers were responsible for a large share of the overall number of violations that were cited. The authors of the report also highlight areas of concern and offer solutions to help protect farmworkers moving forward.
Agnet West
December 21, 2020
A glimmer of hope lies in the fact that the Council of Economic Advisor leans somewhat left and is also labor centered, with the nominated chair, Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University labor economist.
The others, Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey, have past relationships with the Economic Policy Institute, a worker focused think tank in DC (I serve on their board). It is also hopeful that Janet Yellen has been nominated as Treasury Secretary. She is worker-focused and the first woman to hold the posy.
Daytona Times
December 21, 2020
“The current provisions being talked about in the package would probably only provide about a fifth as much boost to job growth as needed, for Georgia call it 30,000 jobs created or saved,” said economist Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute. “They’re leaving a lot on the table.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution
December 21, 2020
Según el Economic Policy Institute, esta subida, cuando llegue, será una buena noticia para cada vez menos trabajadores. Solo el 5% de los empleados del país cobraban en 2019 menos de $9 la hora.
El Diario
December 21, 2020
The economy is expected to rebound strongly next year once vaccines make it safer to be out and about, he said, so there’s less of a need for the $2 trillion or more that some economists, like those at the Economic Policy Institute here, have called for.
…
Economists overall are less enthusiastic about the $284 billion in paycheck protection loans, the biggest chunk of the package’s $325 billion in aid to small businesses. Research on the $525 billion distributed under the program first created in March shows it “is pretty inefficient both as relief and as recovery,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute.
Reuters
December 21, 2020
“Lo que más podría ayudar a los hispanos sería lo que ayudaría a cualquier otro trabajador”, expresó Daniel Costa, experto en asuntos laborales del Economic Policy Institute, refiriéndose a la aprobación de una ley que suministre ayuda económica y otorgue permiso de trabajo a inmigrantes que se desempeñan en tareas esenciales.
Associated Press
December 21, 2020
Lawmakers lacked foresight when they set winter deadlines for many programs, when COVID-19 caseloads were predicted to rise, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
“The trigger on and the trigger off should have nothing to do with a particular calendar date, it should have to do with the health and economic conditions of the country,” she said.
The Balance
December 21, 2020
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
December 21, 2020
“As we got beyond March and April, we started to see more typical patterns such as Black unemployment not improving as quickly,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute. “What we’re seeing as more time passes is that it’s also more of a reflection of different kinds of jobs that people hold. A lot of the big impacts have been in the service sector, which disproportionally employ women and people of color.”
The Advocate
December 21, 2020