The Economic Policy Institute published a study in May regarding essential workers in the US. Almost half of essential workers in 2019 were women, and over 40 percent were people of color. Women made “up the majority of essential workers in health care (76 percent) and government and community-based services (73 percent),” jobs which are predominantly in-person, with limited to no ability to work remotely.
Nonprofit Quarterly
August 4, 2020
You might be asking, “but where am I going to find the resources to give my workers more?” Here, CEOs would do well to look in the mirror. According to the Economic Policy Institute, CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978, while the salary of the average worker has increased only 12%. The economy would suffer zero harm if CEOs were paid less.
Time
August 4, 2020
There is also an economic argument to extending benefits. The expanded federal unemployment assistance injects $18 billion into the economy each week, money that goes to people who need it and spend it. Those funds help prevent a much worse economic collapse. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that cutting off the extra benefits risks losing an additional 5 million jobs, including more than 800,000 in California.
Dianne Feinstein
August 4, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute estimates 5.3 million jobs will be lost without state and local funding. President Trump and the Republicans do not want another massive increase in job loss, so the Democrats are in a strong position to make this demand.
The decrease in unemployment benefits should be another unacceptable “red line” as this will further shrink the economy. The Economic Policy Institute finds the loss of the extra $600 of unemployment benefits, which people are currently spending on basic needs, will result in the loss of an additional 3.4 million jobs.
LA Progressive
August 4, 2020
If Congress doesn’t extend enhanced unemployment benefits – that $600 per week meant to help Americans who lost jobs due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus – new research estimates more than 5 million jobs could be lost, including more than 191,000 in Ohio.
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, said the enhanced unemployment benefit has helped millions of households pay for food, rent and other essentials. And she believes cutting off assistance will make racial inequality worse.
Cleveland Scene
August 4, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said in a recent statement there are currently 14 million more unemployed workers than there are job openings.
“Cutting off the $600 cannot incentivize people to get jobs that aren’t there. It will just cause pain,” she wrote.
Capital Press
August 4, 2020
In June, the progressive Economic Policy Institute projected that the $600 weekly unemployment benefit, if it were to be extended by Congress until July 2021, would increase national GDP by 3.7 percent, support 5,083,197 jobs, and distribute $508.6 billion in income to unemployed workers.
For the same period in Maine, EPI projected the expanded weekly benefit 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 4, 2020
In practice, though, companies have ample discretion in setting this level, and often find loopholes, such as hiring through outsourcing firms. A recent paper by Hira and Daniel Costa for the Economic Policy Institute concludes that companies in the D.C. metro area got a 36% discount from the median wage level for the most common certified H-1B occupation (a category of software developers) in the wage bracket for entry-level positions, a difference of $41,746 per employee in fiscal 2019.
Bloomberg Quint
August 4, 2020
“Just apply. Don’t wait,” Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, told Business Insider. “There’s no reason to wait a week because you can start getting those benefits a soon as possible. It’s good for you, it’s good for the economy.”
Business Insider
August 3, 2020
This support has helped maintain a healthy level of consumer spending, which has, in turn, bolstered roughly 5 million jobs, the Economic Policy Institute found. If the enhanced UI fully lapses in the coming month, the fallout for individual households and the broader economy will be significant.
VOX
August 3, 2020