First and foremost, this pandemic emphasizes the need to give workers at the bottom end of the income ladder some economic security, like by increasing the minimum wage to at least $15. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a $15 minimum wage by 2024 would generate $120 billion in higher wages for workers and would also benefit their communities. Lower-paid workers often spend most of their extra income; the increased minimum wage will initially stimulate the economy and spur greater business activity and job growth.
Faribault Daily News
September 8, 2020
Notably, however, lower unemployment rates for Asian Americans before the pandemic largely stem from a higher level of education, the Economic Policy Institute has found. Adjust for that and Asian Americans actually had higher, not lower, rates of unemployment than White workers.
“The Asian population in America has lots of high-end workers, but also lots of low-end workers as well,” said Kim, who authored the EPI study. Because higher-income employees tend to have more education, when they lose their jobs it often longer for them to find new employment, Kim explained. “Higher education workers end up being counted as unemployed longer instead of giving up.”
CBS News Moneywatch
September 8, 2020
There are 11 million more unemployed workers than job openings nationwide, according to Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute.
KTVU-TV
September 8, 2020
Caroline Hyde, Romaine Bostick & Taylor Riggs bring you the latest news and analysis leading up to the final minutes and seconds before the closing bell on Wall Street as stocks sink despite strong jobs data. Guests Today: Megan Greene of the Harvard Kennedy School, Jeff Tannenbaum of Titan Grove, Michael Crow of Arizona State University, Anne Mathias of Vanguard, Tim Perez of the DNC, Nancy Tengler of Laffer Tangler Investments, Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute
Bloomberg TV
September 8, 2020
Between February and May, nearly 11 million jobs held by women have disappeared – eliminating a decade of job gains by women. By June, women regained 2.9 million position, but mostly in the hospitality field, which remains insecure amid the pandemic, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Chicago Tribune
September 8, 2020
How many Americans have lost employer-sponsored insurance is yet to be determined because federal data won’t be available until 2021. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that 6.2 million workers have lost access to health insurance that they previously got through their employers and, as a result, 4 million more Americans have joined their state Medicaid rolls.
Bloomberg Law
September 8, 2020
Labor Day is, in theory, supposed to celebrate all workers. But in 2015, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a quarter of people working in the private sector didn’t get a paid day off on Labor Day. Many businesses typically stay open, meaning a large proportion of service, retail, and hospitality industry workers expect to be on the job.
Refinery29
September 8, 2020
According to the Economic Policy Institute, just 67% of nonunion private-sector workers had access to health care benefits in 2019, compared to 94% of union members. The union difference is real. Collective bargaining leads to benefits such as paid leave, job security and wages high enough to sustain a family.
Herald Review
September 8, 2020
Labor Day 2020 is like no other. According to the Marketplace August report, although the U.S. Labor Department reported 18 million Americans out of work, with 1.2 million filing first-time claims, those already receiving some form of unemployment benefits is around 31 million people. Why the difference? A senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute says to be counted as “unemployed,” you have to be actively looking for work. A lot of health-compromised or older adults work in jobs that deal with the public. Because of COVID-19 concerns, they choose not yet to return. Here, many work in the hospitality industry and have no options for jobs.
Orlando Sentinel
September 8, 2020
“Looking at one month of job gains doesn’t provide the appropriate context, you really need to look and see how far we still are in the hole,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute think tank, told ABC News ahead of the report’s release. “In April, we lost more than 20 million jobs in one month. It’s going to take months, if not years, to get back to that level.”
ABC News
September 8, 2020