A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that public school teachers were paid about 20% less in weekly wages than college-educated peers in 2019.
The report’s authors, Sylvia Allegretto and Lawrence Mishel, call this the “teacher wage penalty” — and it’s actually gotten better since 2018. The 19.2% rate in 2019 was down from 22% in 2018.
Business Insider
September 17, 2020
Four years later, it’s clear that Trump’s trade policies have failed U.S. workers. Instead of more good jobs, his ever-escalating trade wars have led to higher costs, lost markets, and more plant closures. Economic Policy Institute research shows that nearly 1,800 U.S. factories disappeared between 2016 and 2018.
USA Today
September 17, 2020
Trump promised to restore manufacturing jobs. Wrong. An Economic Policy Institute report in August said the U.S. has lost “nearly 1,800 factories … during the Trump administration between 2016 and 2018 (bit.ly/2Zffztf).
Hood River News
September 16, 2020
There is some irony in the fact that the worst health care crisis in our lifetime has taken the focus off of health care coverage, even though, according to the Economic Policy Institute think tank, an estimated 6.2 million Americans lost their employer-sponsored health coverage because of the coronavirus-caused recession.
WFAE
September 16, 2020
COVID-19 job losses have exacerbated lack of access to prenatal care. The Economic Policy Institute estimates up to 12 million American workers have lost access to their employer-sponsored insurance – and women are overrepresented in the industries making significant cuts, including retail and restaurant jobs.
KCUR
September 16, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute has estimated that 12 million people have lost health insurance received through their workplace or that of a family member. Some of those have been able to enroll in Medicaid — its rolls have risen by about 4 million during the pandemic — but others find it unaffordable.
Washington Post
September 16, 2020
In another study about racial disparities in employment by the Economic Policy Institute, African-Americans were found to be twice as likely as whites to be unemployed at every education level.
WUSA 9
September 16, 2020
“This does really underscore just how important it is that we make key investments in our data infrastructure, because now we know what it feels like when we don’t have good data,” said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy for the Economic Policy Institute.
New York Times
September 16, 2020
“The impact that we are seeing now from the pandemic and the recession really are a reflection of these kinds of disparities,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy.
CNN
September 16, 2020
How successfully would Biden’s proposals for public investment stanch these wounds? University of Massachusetts economist Robert Pollin has produced a report for the Sierra Club that estimates the total number of jobs that would be created by Biden’s pledges to increase spending on infrastructure, clean energy, and caregiving, and arrives at the figure of 11.6 million jobs per year. (That figure includes the 1.4 million manufacturing jobs he estimates will be created yearly by the increased spending on those three initiatives.) Of those, 5.2 million would result from the boost to spending on infrastructure, 4.1 million from the boost to clean energy, and 2.3 million from the boost to the caregiving sector. Economist Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute has estimated a comparable number of jobs to those that Pollin projects would be created in caregiving each year—from 1.8 million to 2.4 million.
The American Prospect
September 16, 2020