According to the Economic Policy Institute, reinstating the unemployment insurance programs would add more than 5 million jobs and raise the United States’ GDP by 3.5%. Given the fact that we are still 10 million jobs below where we were a year ago, we cannot understand any hesitancy about making this move.
The State Journal
December 15, 2020
Biden’s plan to more than double the minimum wage is part of an ambitious effort to lift a wage that has remained at $7.25 since 2009, up from $5.15 as of 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. However, 29 states and Washington, D.C., already have minimum wages that exceed the federal minimum, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
S&P Global
December 15, 2020
Wages for the bottom 90 percent of earners are being gobbled up by the top 10 percent of earners—with the top One Percent and top One-tenth of One Percent of earners reaping huge financial bonanzas, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which analyzed federal government data.
The Final Call
December 15, 2020
Here’s a look at the minimum wage and its scheduled increases in Nevada and surrounding coastal and intermountain states, as compiled by the Economic Policy Institute’s Minimum Wage Tracker.
Nevada Current
December 15, 2020
As everyone from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute to the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics has argued, these and other policies that put spending money into the pockets of poor and other working people would be a boon for the economy. It’s why even Forbes magazine — which spent the Great Recession making the case against unemployment insurance — championed extending the unusually generous unemployment program this time around.
Jacobin
December 15, 2020
Many left-leaning economists would prefer Congress renew the federal unemployment benefit at $600 a week. But Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and the director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, says $300 weekly payments are “infinitely better than nothing. … There’s no question it would lift a huge number of people out of poverty.”
Washington Post
December 15, 2020
To be clear, there’s little that the Biden administration can do administratively that would have the same impact on the economy as a stimulus package, says Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. But the administration can set in motion changes—on worker protections, student debt, the Federal Reserve’s lending to state and local governments, and more—that could “lead to a more equitable economy,” Shierholz says, boosting consumer spending and hopefully giving the overall economy “a shot in the arm.” Here are a few of the options in Biden’s toolbox, according to economists:
Mother Jones
December 15, 2020
Many economists, however, say workers need more pay to make it through the crisis, and delaying wage increases will only cause more economic damage.
Here & Now‘s Tonya Mosley speaks with Karen Harned, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, and Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
WBUR Here and Now
December 15, 2020
Index of per enrollee costs for comparable health-care benefits*
Source: Economic Policy Institute
Bloomberg
December 14, 2020
The JOLTS report was “a clear and confirming sign that the recovery is not charging ahead,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, who noted in a commentary that the figures don’t even capture November’s slowdown in job growth. “With hiring and job openings at these levels, the economy is facing a long slow recovery, unless Congress acts,” she wrote.
The Balance
December 14, 2020