Meanwhile, layoffs appear to be on the rise alongside the surge in new COVID-19 cases, which topped 218,667 nationally on Wednesday. Another 1.3 million people filed new unemployment claims last week, bringing initial claims to their highest point since September, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Truthout
December 11, 2020
“Layoffs appear to be rising, consistent with the resurgent virus,” Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, and former Labor Department chief economist, wrote Thursday in an analysis.
CNBC
December 11, 2020
Fremstad says more than a third of workers in many frontline industries live in low-income families. And the Economic Policy Institute reports that in the first quarter of 2020, Black workers had the highest unemployment rate nationally — 6.3% — putting them at a disadvantage even before the pandemic.
WOSU
December 11, 2020
If the federal minimum wage is raised, pay for restaurant and retail workers would catch up to wages already offered in many states. A total of 29 states and Washington, D.C., impose minimum wages higher than the federal minimum, while many localities within states have raised their wage floors even higher, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which is in favor of gradually raising the minimum wage and gradually getting rid of a tipped wage. Florida voters on Nov. 3 approved a measure that will raise the state’s minimum wage from $8.56 an hour to $15 an hour over the next six years.
S&P Global
December 11, 2020
“The 1.3 million who applied for UI last week was an increase of 276,000 from the prior week, bringing initial claims back to their highest point since September,” Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a blog post Thursday. “Further, last week’s increase was not just due to week-to-week volatility in the data. The four-week moving average of total initial claims is now at its highest point since October.”
Common Dreams
December 11, 2020
Sadly however, some of these workers are exploited by their employers. They are subjected to substandard working conditions and unpaid wages thereby enriching their employers while placing workers at risk. (See, “Employers increase their profits and put downward pressure on wages and labor standards by exploiting migrant workers,” Economic Policy Institute, Aug. 27, 2019.)
Altamont Enterprise
December 11, 2020
Biggest increase in first-time unemployment claims in months. (Economic Policy Institute)
Bill Moyers
December 11, 2020
CEOs in this country are also making fantastically big bucks. They’ve spent recent decades growing the gap ever wider between what they take home and what their workers earn. Major chief execs, the Economic Policy Institute calculates, now make 320 times worker pay, up from 21 times worker pay in 1969 and 61 times in 1989.
Inequality.org
December 11, 2020
The CDC, though, has yet to say what group of Americans will be eligible for vaccines next. Another problem: The U.S. is only likely to have enough doses for about 50 million Americans during the next four months. Uber alone has an estimated 2.5 million drivers in the U.S. Add in plumbers, airline attendants, garbage collectors and superintendents and you quickly surpass the number of vaccines that will be available anytime soon. The Economic Policy Institute recently estimated that more than 55 million workers across the U.S. qualify as essential.
CBS
December 11, 2020