Before COVID-19, minority groups comprised much of the nation’s low wage earners. In a wage report issued by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the group documents how much less African American and Latinx workers are paid than White workers. The numbers show that both Black and Latinx workers have a history of making less income than White workers. By 2019, Black wages were 75.6% of White wages, and Latinx wages were 74.6%.
Coalition on Human Needs
November 17, 2020
Moody’s estimated that Biden’s overall economic plan, which includes health care investments, could create up to 18.7 million new jobs. A recent Economic Policy Institute report found that a similar plan that includes both clean energy and infrastructure investments, coupled with rebalancing trade, could create up to 12.9 million new jobs.
Alliance for American Manufacturing
November 17, 2020
Plus, the more that graduates earn, the more tax dollars they contribute over time, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In turn, educated people want to live somewhere where they will get a good return on their educational investment.
Hispanic Network
November 17, 2020
“The bottom line is that many workers will see a massive drop in living standards and increases in poverty,” said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy for the Economic Policy Institute.
Reuters
November 17, 2020
“Levin has both the knowledge and the expertise and the connections, both in the labor movement and in the broader progressive movement, including the environmental movement, to really be effective and a forceful advocate for families,” Economic Policy Institute President Thea Lee, who worked with Levin at the AFL-CIO, told POLITICO.
Politico
November 17, 2020
Trump promised a surge of new factory construction, something that largely hasn’t happened, noted the Economic Policy Institute in an August study reporting “nearly 1,800 factories have disappeared under Trump.” The study also found a loss of manufacturing jobs accelerating due to the pandemic.
NBC News
November 17, 2020
“Let’s hope they don’t carry the price for so long,” said Elise Gould, senior economic at the Economic Policy Institute.
Patch
November 17, 2020
“Inequality in our economy causes a lot of problems,” said Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “There’s a growing awareness that we can actually do something about it.”
Bloomberg
November 16, 2020
“The Trump administration never did lay out a coherent, comprehensive, engaged trade strategy,” said Thea M. Lee, an economist and the president of the Economic Policy Institute. “It was much more scattershot: Throw up a tariff here, do a deal with China, disparate elements that didn’t seem to talk to each other.”
“But there are a lot of tools in that toolbox, and I would like to see the Biden administration be thoughtful and strategic about how to use them,” Ms. Lee said.
The New York Times
November 16, 2020
The bottom line: Most progressive economists agree that “the president and the White House don’t have many levers to pull on stimulus without Congress,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “It’s super limited.”
But most of the potential regulatory changes to juice the economy, like waiving permitting requirements, tend to conflict with other progressive priorities, such as environmental protection.
Axios
November 16, 2020