Media clips

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• Biden’s 180-Degree Shift on Trade Policy

  USTR works closely with the Labor Department, which in turn is in close contact with American and Mexican unions to identify abuses. The Labor Department’s top liaison with USTR is the deputy undersecretary for international affairs, Thea Lee.

  Prospect readers may recognize the name. Thea Lee was president of the Economic Policy Institute, and for 20 years before that was a senior staffer at the AFL-CIO.

  American Prospect August 20, 2021
• Timeline: How Corporate America Has Helped Decimate Unions

  The declining bargaining power of unions contributes to the crisis of extreme income inequality in the United States. “The erosion of collective bargaining is the second largest factor that suppressed wage growth and fueled wage inequality over the last four decades,” finds the Economic Policy Institute. Belonging to a union significantly boosts wages: Unionized workers earn, on average, over 11% more than their nonunionized counterparts and are more likely to have health benefits from their employer. Unionized workers also are less likely to get laid off than their nonunion workers. 

  Capital and Main August 20, 2021
• CEOS got bonuses while workers struggled during the pandemic

  CEOs at the largest publicly traded companies earned, on average, 351 times as much as the typical worker in their industry, according to a new analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. That’s the largest gap since the stock market bubble peaked in 2000.

  Those executives also got a handsome pay raise: 18.9% on average. Meanwhile, the typical worker (who didn’t get laid off) saw only a 3.9% increase in wages.

  The pay gap between top executives and their employees has been widening since the 1980s, when CEOs made about 45 times as much as the median worker.

  “The escalation of CEO compensation, and of executive compensation more generally, has fueled the growth of top 1% and top 0.1% incomes, generating widespread inequality,” wrote economists Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra, who authored the study.

  Center for Public Integrity August 20, 2021
• IN URGENT NEED Millions of workers could lose their unemployment benefits from Labor Day if Congress doesn’t act to extend them

  There are an estimated 9.5 million Americans who are unemployed, but the Economic Policy Institute determined that there are another 10.4 million workers who continue to be financially hurt by the unemployment downturn as of June.

   

  The Sun August 20, 2021
• Nearly Two-Thirds of American Households Didn’t Pay Federal Income Tax Last Year

  In 2020, COVID-19 put a huge dent in household incomes, with millions of people losing their jobs. Unemployment hit low-wage workers the hardest, with 80% of job losses in 2020 coming from workers in the bottom 25% of wage distribution, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Low-wage workers who had a lower tax liability before the pandemic hit may have seen their federal income tax bill completely wiped out when their income dropped.

  Money August 20, 2021
• Report: Temp workers struggle in a ‘two-tiered workforce with a permanent underclass’

  That’s been an ongoing issue with minimal resolution in sight, said Ron Hira, a research associate with the Economic Policy Institute. He said while the report is “vital and consistent” with his longtime research, it just scratches the surface of the issues involving temporary and contracted workers in tech.

  “This report is important because it sheds light on the actual employment situation for most technology workers, which is much worse than what most people, including reporters and policymakers, believe to be the case,” Hira said. “There’s a large gap between what people’s impression of the technology labor market versus its true state.”

  Hira also disputed the misperception that there’s a shortage of technology workers, and as a result, those workers have their pick of jobs, can demand high wages and luxurious working conditions.

  “The (tech) companies themselves have played an aggressive role in creating the false version of the technology labor market,” Hira said. “It is so difficult to break through with the truth because the misperception of widespread labor shortages has become a truism for most people.”

  USA Today August 20, 2021
• CEO Pay

  Last year, while the US was in a pandemic recession and millions of people were out of work, CEOs of the country’s biggest public companies saw their compensation increase $24 million on average. How did that happen? It’s all about the stock market. That’s Lawrence Mishel, a distinguished fellow and former president of the Economic Policy Institute.

  BYU Radio August 20, 2021
• Leyes antiinmigrantes y bajos salarios merman la población rural de EUA

  Un análisis del Economic Policy Institute (Instituto de Política Económica) ratifica la tesis de Xiuhtecutli al destacar que los trabajadores agrícolas, considerados “esenciales” en medio de la pandemia para sostener las cadenas de suministro de alimentos, “no han sido recompensados adecuadamente” pues ganaban 14,62 dólares por hora en promedio en 2020, mucho menos que algunos de los “peor pagados” del país.

  The San Diego Union-Tribune August 20, 2021
• The Behind-The-Scenes Campaign For The Next Social Security Commissioner

  Harris spent years at the Labor Department before rising to deputy labor secretary in 2009. His work carrying out the Obama administration’s policies on workplace safety, wage theft and other labor issues drew plenty of praise from the left. The Economic Policy Institute wrote regarding Harris’s breadth of experience that it was “unlikely that anyone so knowledgeable will ever serve” at the agency again.

  Huffpost August 20, 2021
• Is It Time for Unions to Seize the Moment?

  In the mid-twentieth century, one in three US workers were union members. By 2020, it was down to about one in ten. US employers spend almost $340 million (US) every year hiring “union avoidance advisers,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  …

  And, according to the Economic Policy Institute, strong unions set industry standards for wages and benefits that help all workers, often by pushing non-union employers to raise wages to stay competitive. Union effects also extend beyond the labour market. One US study found health care facilities with registered-nurses unions have better patient outcomes.

  The Walrus August 20, 2021
• 179 Reasons You Probably Don’t Need to Panic About Inflation

  For the first time in years, talk of inflation fears has taken center stage in mainstream economic discourse. Inflation, an economic measure for increased prices in goods and services, accelerated noticeably in recent months, climbing 5.4 percent in July over the previous year. This spurred calls for the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, to “cool off” the economy by raising interest rates. But doing so could cause a lot of collateral damage by stalling the still-nascent economic recovery.

  “Cooling off” the economy sounds prudent, innocuous even. Yet, in practice, this monetary policy maneuver means that the Fed increases borrowing costs for businesses and pulls back on helping jobless Americans find work. So it’s worth breaking down this year’s inflation data in granular detail, then asking whether the price increases we’ve seen merit the very tough medicine — slower growth and higher unemployment — that would result from the stricter monetary policy that some financial commentators now recommend.

  The ultimate answer most likely depends on how lasting this inflation acceleration will be, which, in turn, depends on how widespread the price growth American consumers have experienced becomes.

  So far, the inflationary burst of 2021 has been overwhelmingly driven by a narrow group of sectors that were deeply affected by the shock of Covid-19 and last year’s accompanying shutdowns. In July, some of these sectors (used cars in particular) experienced a big deceleration in inflation, bolstering the argument — led by the Fed chair, Jerome Powell — that the inflationary surge might be “transitory,” or fade quickly on its own.

  That would be good news for the economy and job-seekers: If inflation proves to be transitory then it’s likely that the Fed doesn’t need to reel back as much of its economic support out of fears of “overheating” the economy and sparking long-lasting inflation.

  New York Times August 20, 2021
• Janet Yellen Gets a Chance to Shape the Fed, This Time From Outside

  The decision was “seemingly rooted in simple-minded partisanship that demanded a Republican president replace a Democratic appointee as Fed chair,” Josh Bivens, research director at the typically liberal Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a statement at the time. “This decision breaks a longstanding norm of not elevating partisanship over competence when picking Fed chairs.”

  Mr. Bivens, in an email last week, said that the norm “is pretty broken,” but that the decision to replace a Fed chair should still come down to whether the incumbent had done a good job. There’s a strong case for keeping Mr. Powell based on his monetary policymaking at a moment of fierce debate over the Fed’s policy direction, he thinks.

  New York Times August 20, 2021
• Crypto Community Remembers How Nixon Killed The Dollar, Reminds Bitcoin Is A Solution

  Data released by the economic policy institute clearly shows that since 1971, the United States’ net productivity growth stopped causing hourly wages to grow as well.

  Up until that point, the lines representing the two metrics followed each other so closely that they nearly perfectly overlap.

  After the dollar was detached from the gold standard, productivity more than doubled, but it didn’t reflect on wages.

  Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance) August 20, 2021
• Appeal of unemployment benefit cut-off gets support

  Besides Policy Matters, those filing the brief include the American Sustainable Business Council, the leading business organization serving the public policy interests of responsible companies; the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit law and research organization that has advocated for the employment rights of unemployed workers for over 50 years; Professor William E. Spriggs of Howard University, a leading expert on U.S. social insurance programs and the implications for racial equity; the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization with over 30 years’ experience analyzing the effects of economic policy on the lives of America’s working families, and Andrew Stettner of the Century Foundation, an expert in policy research on U.S. social insurance programs.

  Policy Matters Ohio August 20, 2021
• Dems’ budget proposals are a shot at progress on wages and climate

  After a lot of ups and downs, the Senate finally passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) last week. According to Moody’s Analytics, the bill could create roughly 650,000 jobs. Many of these would be good-paying jobs, with excellent wages and benefits, especially for non-college-educated workers in manufacturing and construction. 

  We at the Economic Policy Institute agree with this assessment — and believe these new jobs will pay substantially more than positions in service industries, especially for women as well as Black, Hispanic, and other workers of color.

  These jobs are urgently needed. Wage inequality in the United States has been growing since the late 1970s, and there’s a critical need to create new middle-class employment. In particular, failed international economic policies — including those which led to growing trade deficits that displaced more than 5 million manufacturing jobs since 1998 — can explain a significant share of growing wage inequality. As a result, millions of Americans who have lost productive jobs have simply been forced into lower-paying service industry positions.

  The Hill August 20, 2021
• American CEOs make 351 times more than workers. In 1965 it was 15 to one

  Last week, the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan thinktank, released a report on the increasing pay gap between chief executives and workers. This research tells a familiar story with updated figures. When taking into account stocks, which now make up more than 80% of the average CEO’s compensation package, the report found that chief-executive pay has risen by an astounding 1,322% since 1978. That’s more than six times more than the top 0.1% of wage earners and more than 73 times higher than the growth of the typical worker’s pay, which grew by only 18% in the same time period. Most remarkable, however, is the 18.9% increase in CEO compensation between 2019 and 2020 alone.

  CEO compensation outpacing that of the 0.1% is a clear indication that this growth is not the product of a competitive race for skills or increased productivity, the EPI report explains, so much as the “power of CEOs to extract concessions. Consequently, if CEOs earned less or were taxed more, there would be no adverse impact on the economy’s output or on employment,” the report concludes.

  This report joins a slew of data sounding an alarm on a massive upward transfer of wealth to the top 1% over the course of the pandemic. One estimate by the Institute for Policy Studies puts this figure as high as $4tn, or a 54% increase in fortunes for the world’s 2,365 billionaires.

  Today in the US, the CEO-to-worker pay gap stands at a staggering 351 to one, an unacceptable increase from 15 to one in 1965. In other words, the average CEO makes nearly nine times what the average person will earn over a lifetime in just one year.

  …

  The EPI is correct. A wealth tax on the 1% would not hinder the economy nor employment, so much as rein in the excesses of the billionaire space race and luxury doomsday bunkers that stand in stark relief to the floods, fires, famine and pestilence that have currently taken hold.

  The Guardian August 20, 2021
• How One Formerly Redlined City Is Striving to Green Itself

  As Richard Rothstein, a fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, a worker-focused think tank, argues in his history of segregation, The Color of Law, because Richmond was essentially all White before the war, the federal government’s role in housing directly established segregation in the city.

  …

  Rothstein writes that in Richmond, this meant when White families moved to newly built suburbs like Rollingwood, Black people were left in the same public housing built for the war, closer to pollution from industry and without federal money to help them buy their own homes. By 1950, the war projects housed more than 75 percent of Richmond’s Black population.

  Mother Jones August 20, 2021
• Meet 4 typical unvaccinated Americans, from a Latino agriculture worker to a 12-year-old Snapchat user with Republican parents

  Low-earning Americans get the least paid time off, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Nearly half of people who have not received a vaccine jab told KFF they are concerned about getting paid time off to get a shot and to deal with adverse side effects.

  Business Insider August 20, 2021
• Oregon’s farmworkers disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, study shows

  Indigenous farmworkers were also much more likely to work for a farm labor contractor. Farm labor contractors are the fastest-growing segment of farm employment and made up one-quarter of federal employment law violations in agriculture, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that examines the economic conditions of low and middle-income workers.

  Statesman Journal August 20, 2021
• Against the Legacy of Redlining, New Shades of Green

  As Richard Rothstein, a fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, a worker-focused think tank, argues in his history of segregation, “The Color of Law,” because Richmond was essentially all White before the war, the federal government’s role in housing directly established segregation in the city.

   

  Undark August 20, 2021
• Democrats Considering Inclusion of Union Member Tax Break in Reconciliation Bill

  Corporations often scaremonger about union dues to their employees, saying that union membership is expensive and therefore not worth it. However, research shows that union members are paid 11.2 percent more than non-union workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, with greater access to benefits like health care.

  Truthout August 20, 2021
• Delaying labor talks is a classic strategy in union negotiations. It seems to be at play in Pittsburgh-area hospitals

  Employers spend an estimated $340 million annually for “union avoidance” consultants to discourage organized labor campaigns by improving management techniques and employee relations, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based outfit that advocates for labor.

   

  Pittsburgh Post Gazette August 20, 2021
• Are Firms Causing People To Quit? Quits Rate Increasing To 2.7%

  The Economic Policy Institute’s quip — “there is no such thing as a labor shortage, there is a wage shortage” represents that view.

  Forbes August 20, 2021
• Timeline: How Corporate America Has Helped Decimate Unions

  The declining bargaining power of unions contributes to the crisis of extreme income inequality in the United States. “The erosion of collective bargaining is the second largest factor that suppressed wage growth and fueled wage inequality over the last four decades,” finds the Economic Policy Institute. Belonging to a union significantly boosts wages: Unionized workers earn, on average, over 11% more than their nonunionized counterparts and are more likely to have health benefits from their employer. Unionized workers also are less likely to get laid off than their nonunion workers. 

  Capital and Main August 20, 2021
• August 20
  August 20, 2021
• Oregon’s farmworkers disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, study shows

  Indigenous farmworkers were also much more likely to work for a farm labor contractor. Farm labor contractors are the fastest-growing segment of farm employment and made up one-quarter of federal employment law violations in agriculture, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that examines the economic conditions of low and middle-income workers.

  Statesman Journal August 16, 2021
• Against the Legacy of Redlining, New Shades of Green

  As Richard Rothstein, a fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, a worker-focused think tank, argues in his history of segregation, “The Color of Law,” because Richmond was essentially all White before the war, the federal government’s role in housing directly established segregation in the city.

   

  Undark August 16, 2021
• Democrats Considering Inclusion of Union Member Tax Break in Reconciliation Bill

  Corporations often scaremonger about union dues to their employees, saying that union membership is expensive and therefore not worth it. However, research shows that union members are paid 11.2 percent more than non-union workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, with greater access to benefits like health care.

  Truthout August 16, 2021
• Delaying labor talks is a classic strategy in union negotiations. It seems to be at play in Pittsburgh-area hospitals

  Employers spend an estimated $340 million annually for “union avoidance” consultants to discourage organized labor campaigns by improving management techniques and employee relations, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based outfit that advocates for labor.

   

  Pittsburgh Post Gazette August 16, 2021
• Are Firms Causing People To Quit? Quits Rate Increasing To 2.7%

  The Economic Policy Institute’s quip — “there is no such thing as a labor shortage, there is a wage shortage” represents that view.

  Forbes August 16, 2021