According to the Economic Policy Institute, just 5% of Black workers and one-sixth of Latinx workers, in general, have the ability to telecommute. An overwhelming majority of those jobs are held by Black and Latino men.
Black Enterprise
January 13, 2021
Labor Department data show Google, which received 6,054 approvals in fiscal year 2019 for new and renewed H-1B visas, received 1,281 approvals in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020. For more than half those workers, pay levels were at least 20% higher than prevailing wages, according to Hira and the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Apple, which received 3,469 approvals in fiscal year 2019, received 755 approvals in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020, with pay levels at least 20% higher than prevailing wages for nearly three-quarters of them. Facebook, with 3,552 approvals in fiscal year 2019, received 1,247 approvals in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020, with pay levels at least 20% higher than prevailing wages for 44% of that group.
East Bay Times
January 12, 2021
In November the official unemployment rate was 6.7 percent, or 10.7 million workers. But this is a dramatic undercount. The Economic Policy Institute has documented over 26 million workers, 15.5 percent of the workforce, who are either out of work or experiencing a drop in hours and pay.
Dissent Magazine
January 12, 2021
According to Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute, if we could revalue our currency, “the U.S. trade deficit could be reduced by $200 to $500 billion, raising demand for U.S. exports (which are dominated by manufactured goods). Stopping currency manipulation and revaluing the dollar could create 2 to 5 million jobs”.
Industry Week
January 12, 2021
DOL didn’t say how much workers would lose by being misclassified as independent contractors, though it conceded “this rule could leave workers with fewer critical job-based benefits, including health insurance’—during a pandemic, Scott noted—-“and retirement.”
The Economic Policy Institute calculated the costs, though: $3 billion yearly in lost wages for all independent contractors—truckers, warehouse workers, adjunct professors, some fast food workers, and others—nationwide. Cash-strapped states would lose payroll and workers comp revenue and there would be “a $750 million hit to social insurance programs” including jobless benefits, EPI calculated.
The present and potential “independent contractors” aren’t the only workers who would take an economic hit under Trump regime midnight rules. So would workers, most of them workers of color, who try to survive on tips.
They’d lose at least $700 million annually, EPI Senior Economist Heidi Shierholz reported after DOL unveiled its final “midnight” tipped workers rule on Dec. 11. And that DOL estimate was in the preliminary version, in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
People’s World
January 12, 2021
Center for American Progress
January 12, 2021
According to the economic policy institute, “In order to stop the economic bleeding caused by the coronavirus pandemic and build a strong recovery, this country needs roughly $3 trillion in relief.”
ABC4-TV
January 12, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute’s Working Economics blog on July 16, 2020, posted an article by Josh Bivens entitled “Recovering fully from the coronavirus shock will require large increases in federal debt — and there’s nothing wrong with that.” This line of thought troubled us then, and troubles us even more now given the events of last week.
Detroit News
January 12, 2021
And though the pandemic has hurt all women, women of color are bearing the brunt of the pain. “The December job loss was definitely concentrated among Black and Hispanic women. No question,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute. “For white women, it’s a total disaster, but that’s dwarfed by what’s happening in other demographic groups.”
Huffpost
January 12, 2021