One basic function of government is keeping people safe. Another is enforcing the law. Unfortunately, President Trump’s labor team has barely lifted a finger to help workers.
Enter state attorneys general. In recent years, a number of them have been increasingly involved in workers’ rights, as documented in an Economic Policy Institute and Harvard Labor and Worklife Program report issued last month.
The American Prospect
September 8, 2020
According to Valerie Wilson, director of the race, ethnicity and economy program at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), several factors fuel these disparities. On the one hand, there were unequal pre-pandemic conditions: Since the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking unemployment by race in the early 1970s, the rate has been highest for Blacks, with Latinos close behind. This is one reason why Latinos and Blacks had higher poverty rates and lower incomes pre-pandemic, which made them more vulnerable to many aspects of the crisis. On the other, COVID-19 has had a disparate impact: Job losses disproportionately affected industries where Latinos and Blacks worked.
What makes Latino workers more vulnerable and disproportionately impacted than others in today’s labor market is “the occupational segregation of Latino workers into more vulnerable jobs, as well as on underlying economic factors”, suggests EPI´s report.
City Limits
September 4, 2020
Union membership leads to higher wages and better access to health insurance and paid sick leave than those without a union, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report states.
Teamsters
September 4, 2020
[tweeted EPI unions report] https://twitter.com/WeAreCTA/status/1300885393471016960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1300885393471016960%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cta.org%2Fevents%2Fawareness-events%2Flabor-day
California Teachers Association
September 4, 2020
Union members in America were better prepared for the coronavirus pandemic and have fared better than their nonunionized peers, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The report further illuminates how unions have stood up for working families during our country’s nearly unprecedented public health and economic crisis.
AFSCME
September 4, 2020
And more than half of the essential workers in the United States who can’t do their jobs from home are also people of color, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Washington Post
September 4, 2020
ECONOMY: Income inequality, and coronavirus’ economic fallout
Two-thirds of the nation’s wealth is owned by the richest five percent of Americans, while at the same time more than 38 million Americans live in poverty. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer has been the story of economic inequality for the last 50 years, and COVID-19 appears set to continue the trend. Correspondent Jill Schlesinger looks at the downside – and what one business figure calls the upside – of income disparity.
For more info:
- KC Tenants, Kansas City, Mo.
- “Capital In the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty (Belknap Press), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon
- Thomas Piketty, Paris School of Economics
- The documentary “Capital In the Twenty-First Century” (Kino Lorber), now screening in virtual cinemas
- Valerie Wilson, director Economic Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.
- edwardconard.com
- “The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class” by Edward Conard (Portfolio), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon
CBS Sunday Morning
September 4, 2020
According to Valerie Wilson, director of the race, ethnicity and economy program at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), several factors fuel these disparities. On the one hand, there were unequal pre-pandemic conditions: Since the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking unemployment by race in the early 1970s, the rate has been highest for Blacks, with Latinos close behind. This is one reason why Latinos and Blacks had higher poverty rates and lower incomes pre-pandemic, which made them more vulnerable to many aspects of the crisis. On the other, COVID-19 has had a disparate impact: Job losses disproportionately affected industries where Latinos and Blacks worked.
What makes Latino workers more vulnerable and disproportionately impacted than others in today’s labor market is “the occupational segregation of Latino workers into more vulnerable jobs, as well as on underlying economic factors”, suggests EPI´s report.
City Limits
September 4, 2020
Union membership leads to higher wages and better access to health insurance and paid sick leave than those without a union, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report states.
Teamsters
September 4, 2020