Despite the increased risks, however, the majority of essential workers who face greater risks coronavirus exposure are not being compensated at a higher rate. A survey commissioned by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, released last month found that only 30% of people working outside their homes received hazard pay.
CNN Business
July 21, 2020
The gap in benefits could last as long as four weeks if the extra payments expire this month and then are reinstated by Congress, according to Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. It’s unclear whether Congress would include a provision to pay workers retroactively for the missed weeks of pay.
CBS Moneywatch
July 21, 2020
“If you cut off the $600 to incentivize people to go back to work, that will just be cruel, because for millions of people the jobs aren’t there,” says Heidi Shierholz, the former chief economist at the Department of Labor and current director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute.
Additionally, UI has served as a critical safety net for millions of workers whose jobs have effectively been eliminated in the near term. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, as many as 11.9 million workers have zero chance of returning to their prior jobs as temporary job losses become permanent ones.
VOX
July 21, 2020
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 20 percent of the United States’ essential workers are Latino, from custodial to construction and food service. That makes it difficult to quarantine at home.
WFLA-TV (Florida)
July 21, 2020
Many workers going on strike are essential, meaning they have risked contracting the novel coronavirus by continuing to physically go to work. Essential workers are disproportionately Black and Latino, per the Economic Policy Institute — the two communities that have seen the highest rate of COVID-19 cases.
Business Insider
July 21, 2020
Some researchers have disputed that continuing the assistance would harm the economy or dampen job growth. Josh Bivens, director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, estimates that ending the $600 per week payment outright would “severely” reduce GDP as it would reduce spending in the households most affected by the economic turmoil.
He said enhanced unemployment insurance, combined with hazard pay for essential workers and strengthened job safety standards, which Democrats also want in the next bill, are “good economics and good health policy” as many Americans “face the choice of unsafe work or poverty.”
CNBC
July 21, 2020
Former Labor Department chief economist Heidi Shierholz, who now works at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said unemployed workers are struggling to find a scarcity of jobs in the coronavirus recession.
“Cutting off the $600 cannot incentivize people to get jobs that aren’t there,” she said, noting that there are 14 million more unemployed workers than job openings.
“The millions who will remain jobless after the extra $600 is cut off will have no choice but to drastically cut their spending, causing a sharp decline in their living standards, an increase in poverty and completely unnecessary suffering,” she said.
The Hill
July 21, 2020
If the $600 expires, 5.1 million jobs could be lost by the end of 2021, according to Josh Bivens’ calculations, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. A $300 reduction would result in half as many losses by 2021, Bivens told MarketWatch, but would still be “a disaster.”
MarketWatch
July 21, 2020
The challenge with virtual or staggered schools as it stands, of course, is that parents cannot both work and provide supervision or learning support. In fact, most cannot be home with their children at all. The Economic Policy Institute reports that “less than 30% of workers can work from home, and the ability to work from home differs enormously by race and ethnicity,” as well as income.
Romper
July 21, 2020