Capital and Main
October 22, 2020
The jobs boost from these projects would be enormous. New research by the Economic Policy Institute found such a program could generate between 6.9 and 12.9 million new U.S. jobs between 2020 and 2024. Much of that work would be concentrated in high-wage industries like manufacturing and construction. Overall, investing in infrastructure and renewable energy would support strong job creation in all 50 states.
Duluth News Tribune
October 22, 2020
An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that the plan would add a minimum of 2 million jobs through infrastructure investments, 1.3 million jobs by investing in clean energy and energy efficiency improvements, and 3.5 million jobs from trade and competitiveness policies. At least 2.5 million of the jobs would be in U.S. manufacturing.
Alliance for American Manufacturing
October 22, 2020
Many reports attribute the purported decline in Americans’ retirement security to the generations-long shift from traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions to defined contribution (DC) retirement accounts, including 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). For instance, a study published by the progressive-leaning Economic Policy Institute states, “The shift from pensions to account-type savings plans has been a disaster for lower-income, black, Hispanic, non-college-educated, and single workers, who together add up to a majority of the American population” (Morrissey 2019). Monique Morrissey concludes that the US “retirement system does not work for most workers,” which in her view “underscores the importance of preserving and expanding Social Security, defending defined benefit pensions for workers who have them, and seeking new solutions for those who do not.”
But this is not the first time we have heard such dire warnings. In a 2002 Economic Policy Institute book, economist Edward N. Wolff (2002) analyzed the retirement prospects of Americans born between 1934 and 1951. These households were age 47 to 64 in 1998, the year of Wolff’s analysis. Like Morrissey today, Wolff concluded that the shift from traditional pensions to 401(k)-type retirement accounts had been highly detrimental to the retirement income security of the typical US household. Wolff projected that 18.5 percent of the 1934-51 cohort households would retire into poverty, an increase from prior birth cohorts. Wolff also projected that 56 percent of the 1934-51 birth cohorts would have retirement incomes below 75 percent of their incomes immediately preceding retirement, a commonly used benchmark for retirement income adequacy.
Insurance News
October 22, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator was used to determine the local cost of living, which includes housing, food, health care, transportation and other necessities. In many of the locations examined in the study – which identified the region in each state where the cost of living is lowest – housing costs can account for less than 15 percent of total living expenses.
The Center Square
October 22, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan Washington, D.C. think tank, analyzed a dozen historical examples of U.S. emissions reduction regulations that industry opposed based on projected high costs. Across the board, compliance costs were routinely much lower than expected.
Now Toronto
October 22, 2020
“Think about it: Who was doing the caregiving in our country all the way back?” Elise Gould, PhD, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, told Healthline.
Healthline
October 22, 2020
Women in all income brackets, from minimum wage to six-figure incomes, were affected. But low-wage workers tend to have the least amount of flexibility in their jobs. Higher-wage workers are six times as likely to be able to work from home as lower-wage workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
USA Today
October 22, 2020
Without a federal fiscal relief package, workers will face even greater loss of jobs and services than has already occurred. The Economic Policy Institute predicts that in Texas 433,900 public-sector jobs employing teachers, public safety workers and health care workers, will be lost by the end of 2021 without more federal aid.
CW39 Houston
October 22, 2020
Josh Bivens, et al., “How Today’s Unions Help Working People,” Economic Policy Institute, August 24, 2017 (epinet.org)
Labor Notes
October 22, 2020