In 2015, the Economic Policy Institute demonstrated that childcare was essentially unaffordable for a parent making minimum wage in the United States. The cost of childcare in every state was at least 30 percent of a minimum wage worker’s salary and more than 80 percent in states like New York. In Washington, D.C., the cost of childcare even exceeded the annual earnings of a minimum wage worker.
The New Republic
July 9, 2020
The consequences of the drops in GDP could be catastrophic, Economic Policy Institute director of research Josh Bivens told Common Dreams.
“We think that if the federal government fails to address the coming state and local government shortfalls, it will guarantee a prolonged recession and several years of excess unemployment,” said Bivens. “We have noted estimates of the state and local shortfalls between now and the end of 2021 hover around $1 trillion, and if we do nothing to close that gap, we’ll end 2021 with roughly 5 million fewer jobs in the US economy than we otherwise would have had.”
Common Dreams
July 9, 2020
Economic Policy Institute economists Heidi Shierholz and Elise Gould told Axios that on top of the 17.8 million unemployed workers, there are another 2 million workers who were misclassified as “employed not at work.”
Newsmax
July 7, 2020
It is far too early to know the extent of COVID-19’s impact – either from a public health or economic perspective. Instead, policymakers need to be vigilant in ensuring they’ve done everything they can to keep people safe and the economy stable in the face of the continuing effects of the pandemic. The key to both goals is having the federal government provide substantial fiscal aid to state and local governments over the coming years—on the order of $1 trillion between now and the end of 2021. Failure to do this will make U.S. families less safe and will leave the U.S. economy short more than 5 million jobs at the end of this time.
Tennessean
July 7, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) points out “this is the 15th week in a row that unemployment claims have been more than twice the worst week of the Great Recession.” On job creation, EPI notes we still have 14.7 million fewer jobs than in February. And June’s employment survey was conducted in the week ending June 13th, which came just before Covid cases began spiking upwards in Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, and other states.
Forbes
July 7, 2020
Moreover, workers who leave to care for children have no guarantee that they’ll get their job back, given the deep economic damage caused by the pandemic, said Elise Gould, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg Law
July 7, 2020
In a 2018 study the Economic Policy Institute found that about 16 percent of non-Black Latinx workers and 20 percent of Black workers could complete their jobs or part of their jobs from home, while non-Latinx White workers’ average for telework was 30 percent.
TCU 360
July 7, 2020
More than 10 million Americans are currently categorized as temporarily out of work. But historically, nearly 30% of people who tell the Labor Department that they are temporarily unemployed never get their job back, said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. “Even though we don’t know if the historical record will hold in this case, it’s an extremely valid concern that not all of those people are going to get called back,” she said.
CNN Business
July 7, 2020
Evermore points to a recent study from the nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute, which said if the $600 benefit was extended for a year, until July 2021, Michigan’s gross domestic product would be boosted by 6.6% and it would support the employment of nearly 200,000 workers.
Detroit Free Press
July 7, 2020