Heidi Shierholz tweets on jobs report embedded in story.
NBC News
July 6, 2020
Opposing a permanent solution to these problems is fundamentally immoral. The absence of a federal paid-leave program that covers all private-sector workers also hurts our economy. It can devastate the well-being of millions of American families on tight budgets. Just “three days of unpaid sick time translate into a household’s monthly utilities budget, preventing the worker from paying for electricity and heat,” according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Hill
July 6, 2020
Since the 1970s, wages and benefits have stagnated, falling out of step with workers’ productivity. Source: Economic Policy Institute
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
July 6, 2020
At 5.3 percentage points, the gap is now the widest since May 2015 and exposes an important economic component of racial inequality at a pivotal moment in U.S. race relations. The country has been rocked by nationwide protests over police brutality against African Americans in recent weeks, following the death of a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis.
“Unfortunately that is consistent with the pattern that we have observed for decades in this country,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity, and the economy.
Reuters
July 6, 2020
Citing federal government data, the Economic Policy Institute has said only about 30% of workers have the ability to work from home. Less than one in five black workers and roughly one in six Latino workers are able to work from home.
Boulder Weekly
July 6, 2020
Finally, the flex workers are not well surveyed. Just-in-time manufacturing often means just-in-time workers, but they don’t make the record book. The Economic Policy Institute’s Lonnie Golden, Ph.D., found in 2015 that “ten percent of the workforce is assigned to irregular and on-call work shift times and this figure is likely low.”
Forbes
July 6, 2020
Heidi Shierholz tweets on jobs report embedded in story.
NBC News
July 6, 2020
Opposing a permanent solution to these problems is fundamentally immoral. The absence of a federal paid-leave program that covers all private-sector workers also hurts our economy. It can devastate the well-being of millions of American families on tight budgets. Just “three days of unpaid sick time translate into a household’s monthly utilities budget, preventing the worker from paying for electricity and heat,” according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Hill
July 6, 2020
Since the 1970s, wages and benefits have stagnated, falling out of step with workers’ productivity. Source: Economic Policy Institute
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
July 6, 2020
“Unfortunately, deepening pain is on the horizon. As bad as the labor market is, it’s likely that June is a temporary respite from the storm,” wrote Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute.
“Given the increase in coronavirus over the last couple of weeks along with re-shuttering of businesses as well as the pending expiration (on July 25th) of the $600 enhanced weekly unemployment insurance benefits, June’s labor market—as weak as it is—is the best we can expect for a while,” she added.
CNBC
July 2, 2020