Because of their age, older workers face much harsher consequences than most other age groups during the pandemic, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In some cases, those consequences are particularly bleak, effectively hobbling these older workers for the future.
GO Banking Rates
January 4, 2021
In any case, the extra $300 was a lost opportunity to support the economy in a much more significant way. Wall Street and the think tanks, at least the left-of-center ones, seem to get that. A couple of examples: a JPMorgan Chase report concluded that during the early months of the pandemic, “spending of the employed was down by 10 percent (while) the spending of unemployment benefit recipients increased by 10 percent, a pattern which is likely explained by the $600 federal weekly supplement.” And this recently from the Economic Policy Institute: “One reason it’s unfortunate (that the enhanced benefit) was reduced to $300 is that unemployment insurance is great stimulus. Reinstating the full $600 would create or save 3.3 million jobs; the $300 will create or save just half that.”
Newsweek
January 4, 2021
Yet much is unclear about the course of the virus and its eradication. How quickly can the vaccines be doled out? How many Americans will feel comfortable getting them? And while many of those laid off could receive additional unemployment insurance if the federal relief measure becomes law, benefits for 11.2 million are still set to expire March 7, according to The Century Foundation, a nonprofit think tank, and the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
USA Today
January 4, 2021
In the United States, the chief executives of the largest 350 companies are paid about 320 times as much as the typical worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. At Mondragón, salaries for executives are capped at six times the lowest wage.
New York Times
January 4, 2021
Black unemployment in D.C. soared from 11 percent to 18 percent in the second quarter, according to the Economic Policy Institute. White unemployment went from 2 to 4 percent.
Washington Post
January 4, 2021
Experts point to the erosion of overtime protections as a key contributing factor to the rising inequality we’re seeing in our economy.
“It is one of the things — worker protections, labor market institutions — that have eroded and contributed to rising inequality; to stagnant wages for middle-class workers,” said Heidi Shierholz, the director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist to the secretary of labor from 2014 to 2017 in the Obama administration.
Marketplace’s David Brancaccio spoke to Shierholz about how we got here and how likely the incoming Biden administration is to prioritize updating the overtime threshold. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Marketplace
January 4, 2021
But even without congressional action, labor activists said they would keep pushing their campaign at the state and local levels. By 2026, 42 percent of Americans will work in a location with a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour, according to an Economic Policy Institute estimate cited in the NELP report.
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Because many hourly service workers are Black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian, people of color stand to gain the most from minimum-wage increases. A 2018 study from the Economic Policy Institute found that workers of color are far more likely to be paid poverty-level wages than white workers.
New York Times
January 4, 2021
From January through October for the 20 states that will raise their minimum wages one economist at the Economic Policy Institute said redistributing money for the lowest paid workers is smart policy because they are the workers who will spend it that will ultimately help the economy.
CNN International
January 4, 2021
When you look at numbers like the unemployment rate looking like it’s doing better at 6.7%, the truth is the Economic Policy Institute and others think the true number is closer to 11.2%.
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
January 4, 2021