The Columbus wage theft ordinance is important and not just because it’s Ohio’s capital and largest city, with almost 900,000 people, but also because it could be a precedent elsewhere. Studies by the Economic Policy Institute and Good Jobs First show wage theft is a national problem, and that strong deterrence can force other firms into obeying the law.
In 2017, EPI analyzed data from the 10 most-populous states, including Ohio, and concluded “2.4 million workers—or approximately 17% of eligible low-wage workers in those ten—lose $8 billion each year in unpaid minimum wages. Based on these findings, EPI estimates ‘total wages stolen from workers due to minimum wage violations exceeds $15 billion each year,’” the National Employment Law Project reported.
People’s World
October 20, 2020
The three fields that suffered the largest job losses between February and May of this year are hospitality, retail, and “other services,” according to the Economic Policy Institute, and nearly half of all Latina workers are employed in those three. Latinas make up almost 15 percent of the workforce in hospitality, the largest of any group. Latinas also have significantly less access to paid sick leave and remote work.
HipLatina
October 20, 2020
Finding a job right now may prove challenging for many people, with nearly 7 million more unemployed workers than job openings, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
CNBC
October 20, 2020
The recovery in the labor market appears to be stalling, with an estimated 661,000 jobs added in September, far below the 1.4 million jobs added in August and 1.7 million added in July. More and more of the job losses happening now are permanent — and coming at a time when extra government assistance has dried up. Last week, the number of new jobless claims filed went up.
“It’s very clear that labor market stress is far from over,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
VOX
October 20, 2020
“As soon as you start measuring differences in any outcomes for Black and white kids, you would find differences, you would find gaps,” said Emma García, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
These “opportunity gaps” can be found when comparing any nonwhite, non-Asian American student with their white or Asian American peers, García said. They can also be found when comparing different socioeconomic classes.
Many of these gaps are driven by poverty, she said. And before a Black child is even born, the odds are stacked against them.
Inside Higher Ed
October 20, 2020
Sylvia Allegretto and Lawrence Mishel, “Teacher pay penalty dips but persists in 2019” (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2020)
Center for American Progress
October 20, 2020
Many unionized workers have paid sick time through a collective-bargaining agreement—according to the Economic Policy Institute, nine in ten workers who are covered by a union contract have access to paid sick days, and 97 percent of those in the public sector who have a union contract do. But as union density in the U.S. has fallen to 10.3 percent, no matter how good a sick time arrangement might be in a contract, few workers have access to them, underscoring the need for federal legislation to set a baseline.
The American Prospect
October 20, 2020
Darrick Hamilton, Ph.D., Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy; Founding Director, Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification and Political Economy, The New School and Valerie Wilson, Ph.D., Director, Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, Economic Policy Institute speak with Donna Wilson, Bloomberg Radio Reporter and Anchor at the Bloomberg Equality virtual briefing Covid-19 Exposed: The Quest for Equity about ways to boost income and net worth for Black and brown households
Bloomberg TV
October 20, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, “With millions of workers receiving unemployment benefits and no end in sight for the COIVD-19 pandemic, Congress must act,” Economic Policy Institute, October 1, 2020
Center for American Progress
October 20, 2020
Pursuing trade and industrial policies that boost U.S. exports and eliminate the trade deficit while investing $2 trillion over four years in the nation’s infrastructure, clean energy, and energy efficiency improvements could support 6.9 to 12.9 million “good jobs” annually by 2024, according to an analysis published Tuesday.
The new report from a trio of experts at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a U.S.-based think tank, comes as the country continues to endure the public health and economic consequences of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 220,000 lives and millions of jobs in the United States alone this year.
Common Dreams
October 20, 2020