The Economic Policy Institute has highlighted that unions increase productivity through a variety of channels. They reduce turnover and, hence, firm-specific skills are retained. Moreover, the lower turnover makes it economically rational for employers to provide more training to union-represented employees, increasing employee skills and productivity further.[15]
United Steelworkers
July 24, 2020
“If we had done nothing, we would’ve thrown tens of millions of people out of work and given them no income. So they would’ve stopped spending anywhere near as much money on groceries. They would’ve quickly gone into defaults or arrears on mortgages,” said Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute.
Marketplace
July 23, 2020
Unemployment insurance expansions were the single best element and should be extended until the economy returns to healthy employment levels. These payments prevented steep plunges in earnings for many laid-off workers. Ending them would deepen the recession and clobber families, torpedoing an additional 5 million jobs and $500 million in personal income, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) knows this but wants to cut the size of the payments. That’s unacceptable.
The Hill
July 23, 2020
The additional money allowed a substantial portion of Americans to have either no pay cut at all or a small one, helping to support the economic recovery through improved consumer spending, according to Josh Bivens, the director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. The Century Foundation estimated the weekly economic impact of the aid in Iowa at $89.2 million through June 27.
Des Moines Register
July 23, 2020
“They were a bad idea then,” Josh Bivens, director of research at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, who first wrote in opposition to Mr. Trump’s payroll tax proposals in the spring, wrote in a direct message on Twitter this week, “but, since then we’ve lost 14 million-plus jobs, and so we now have 14 million fewer people who would benefit now from a payroll tax cut than would’ve back in March.” It is, he said this week, “a bad idea that has aged terribly.”
The New York Times
July 23, 2020
“This is now the 18th week in a row that unemployment insurance (UI) claims have been more than twice the ‘worst’ week of the Great Recession,” a decade ago, Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz tweeted.
People’s World
July 23, 2020
“The benefits don’t only help the recipients; they also support local business where the money is spent. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that more than 5 million jobs were supported by this additional income, including 800,000 jobs in California. This program has kept the economy from suffering even more harm.
Dianne Feinstein
July 23, 2020
Economic Policy Institute research director Josh Bivens estimated that reducing the weekly unemployment insurance (UI) boost from $600 to $100 would cost the U.S. more than four million jobs over the next year.
Common Dreams
July 23, 2020
It is worth noting that according to a report on essential workers by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit Washington-based think tank, many essential workers are not receiving basic health and safety measures, and some are dying from covid-19 as a result.
Washington Post
July 23, 2020
By requiring its workers to agree to arbitration, The Container Store is just following a national trend. A 2018 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that more than half of workers are now subject to such agreements, compared to just 2% in 1992. The contracts have likely become even more widespread since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority gave employers the green light to use them in a landmark ruling in May 2018.
Huffington Post
July 23, 2020