That’s a huge financial hurdle for people of all racial backgrounds, but particularly high for Black families when you consider that Black workers earn just 73 percent of what white workers do, and Black college graduates earn 22.5 percent less than white college graduates, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The institute also reports that in 2018, the median household income for white households was 70 percent higher than for Black households: $70,642 versus $41,692.
The Beach Reporter
August 7, 2020
What happens when hard work isn’t enough? There are a number of handy calculators, such as MIT’s and the Economic Policy Institute’s, that peg a living wage for a family of four residing in a small town at roughly $60,000 to $70,000 a year. That figure is considerably higher for workers living in pricey cities. Now consider that the average full-time production and nonsupervisory worker at an S&P 500 company earned just $41,442 last year, according to data compiled by the AFL-CIO.
Bloomberg
August 7, 2020
The White House has floated the idea of dropping the weekly plus-up to $400, but Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said dropping even to that amount would cause the U.S. to shed 1.7 million more jobs thanks to the loss in spending.
“Because we did not put the public health measures in place necessary to successfully reopen, the coronavirus has spiked and the jobs gains we saw in May and June have stalled, if not reversed,” she said.
Courthouse News Service
August 7, 2020
Black Americans are also more likely to work frontline jobs in public transportation, food services, and other sectors, reports the Economic Policy Institute.
Healthline
August 7, 2020
Right now, federal agencies can use something called a “public interest waiver” to waive Buy American requirements. Research shows, however, that agencies often exploit the waiver, sending billions in taxpayer dollars overseas every year instead of reinvesting that money into American businesses and workers. The Economic Policy Institute estimated in 2015 that these loopholes have cost 100,000 jobs.
Alliance for American Manufacturing
August 7, 2020
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the U.S. lost over 700,000 jobs to China in the first two years of the current administration, and more than 3.7 million jobs over the past several years. The administration would like you to believe that trend is changing and companies are bringing jobs back, but that simply isn’t true.
MarketScreener
August 7, 2020
Jaimie Worker, the senior state policy coordinator at the economic policy institute, was in the meeting as well. Saying the loss of that $600 per week affects more than those who are unemployed.
“They will no longer be buying things that they have been buying,” Worker said. “And the workers who produce those goods and services that they will no longer be buying will lose their jobs as well.”
WNEM-TV (Michigan)
August 7, 2020
Without any kind of benefit extension, the Economic Policy Institute estimates a resulting economic slowdown would lead to 5.1 million fewer jobs being created over the next year.
CNBC
August 7, 2020
“This should not be a shock,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “Economic recovery depends entirely on success in managing the spread of the virus, and this management has failed spectacularly since early June.”
Reuters
August 7, 2020
The progressive Economic Policy Institute found that an expanded benefit through July 2021 would increase national gross domestic product by 3.7 percent, support 5,083,197 jobs, and distribute $508.6 billion in income to unemployed workers. In Maine, it would grow the state’s GDP by 6.8 percent, support 18,025 jobs, and pay out nearly $3.05 billion in personal income.
Maine Beacon
August 6, 2020