During Biden’s campaign, the incoming president talked about raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, up from the current $7.25 an hour. Without Congressional support, Biden will not be able to raise the federal minimum wage, but he could get part way there through an increase to the minimum wage of workers on federal contracts.
Biden could accomplish the increase through an executive order, according to Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and the director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute. The hourly boost could affect the pay of 5 million workers, Shierholz estimated.
CNET
December 14, 2020
The impact of long-term unemployment on workers and families is dramatic, said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Since the additional $600 a week in federal jobless benefits expired at the end of July, unemployed workers have been getting by on regular state jobless benefits, which in Minnesota replace half of a worker’s prior earnings.
“In other words, we have lots of people who have gone a very long time with serious cutbacks in their income, so that means living standards drop, poverty increases, and all of the things that go along with you just had a massive cut in your income is happening to families left and right,” she said.
And with more unemployed workers than there are job openings, she said that some people will have no choice but to take jobs that weren’t as good the ones they had before.
“You lose not just the time you were unemployed, but also you have this setback in that many will get a job that’s for lower pay or perhaps lower rank,” she said. “That has some stickiness to it. It puts you on a different trajectory.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
December 14, 2020
And based on an analysis released by the Economic Policy Institute, people of color (Black, Latino, Asian American and other non-whites) account for 43% of all essential workers in the nation amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Good Morning America
December 14, 2020
Outdated unemployment insurance systems in some states collapsed from the influx of applicants who lost their job during the pandemic. As a result, only 71% of applicants received benefits by April 11, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Newsweek
December 14, 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
“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
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
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