The ACA has a profound, positive impact on our economy. According to the Economic Policy Institute, repeal of the ACA would cause nearly 30 million Americans to lose their health insurance and 1.2 million Americans to lose their jobs in health care and other lines of work.
Newsweek
October 7, 2020
In addition, unions promote racial and gender equity. While the American labor movement wasn’t inclusive, unions have been vehicles to the middle class since their integration in the 1960s. A 2016 study found that the median wealth of a nonwhite union worker was nearly five times greater than their non-union counterpart. Similarly, the Economic Policy Institute found that the gender pay gap in unions is only $0.94, compared to $0.74 for non-union women.
Minnesota Daily
October 7, 2020
The average cost of infant care for one child in Pennsylvania is $11,842, according to the Economic Policy Institute. For a person working a full-time, minimum-wage job, that amount would be more than 78% of their income. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deems child care “affordable” if it costs 7% or less than the family’s total income.
Altoona Mirror
October 7, 2020
Wage theft is a big-time crime in which billions of dollars are taken out of working people’s pockets every year. Rather than armed thugs or slick pickpockets committing the crime, it’s employers who fail to pay the wages and benefits their employees are guaranteed by law.
In the 10 most populous states, 2.4 million workers lose $8 billion to the crime every year, according to a 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Yahoo Finance
October 7, 2020
But even before the COVID-19 crisis, many Americans were dealing with economic issues. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the federal minimum wage hasn’t been enough to meet cost of living demands since the 1960s. This is just one factor contributing to widening economic inequality. This term refers to either gaps in income or wealth between America’s richest and the rest of the country, and both continue to grow year after year.
Chicago Tribune
October 7, 2020
Domestic workers are overwhelmingly women, the majority women of color. They’re paid lower than average wages and most get no sick time, unemployment, health insurance or the right to organize, said Julia Wolfe with the Economic Policy Institute.
“It’s really difficult to think of a more vulnerable workforce,” she said.
Marketplace
October 7, 2020
“We still have a massive gap in the labor market, and job growth is slowing,” said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute and a former chief economist at the Department of Labor during the Obama administration.
The unemployment rate fell to 7.9% in September after businesses added 661,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That rate is down from a 14.7% peak in April, the highest recorded since the Great Depression.
There are 10.7 million fewer jobs now than in February before the pandemic-induced recession, according to the Bureau. The true figure likely exceeds 12 million jobs when factoring in prevailing monthly job-growth trends that had been occurring pre-pandemic, Shierholz said.
CNBC
October 7, 2020
The region’s cost of living presents a challenge. A single Ulster County resident must earn $48,036 annually to adequately pay bills, while a family with two adults and two children needs $109,754, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research group.
Times Herald-Record
October 7, 2020
Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers and Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute Research Director, discuss the economic impact of cutting back the $600 boost in unemployment insurance.
Yahoo Finance
October 7, 2020