Few employers have compensated extra for on-site work amid the health crisis. A recent survey by the Economic Policy Institute found that fewer than a third of people who had to leave their homes to work during the pandemic received additional pay or benefits. As U.S. coronavirus cases persist and some states are even backtracking their reopening plans, workers have flooded social media with calls for hazard pay.
NPR
July 1, 2020
And the impact of state and local spending cuts doesn’t stay there; rather, they serve as a major drag on the economy. Because of multiplier effects (i.e., one person’s spending is another person’s salary), the cuts greatly slowed the pace of recovery from the Great Recession. According to economist Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute, if state and local government spending “had instead followed the trajectory it established following the recovery from the similarly steep recession of the early 1980s, pre-recession unemployment rates could have been achieved by early 2013 rather than 2017. In short, this austerity delayed recovery by over four years.”
Nonprofit Quarterly
July 1, 2020
But while the outlook is optimistic, the gains are not being enjoyed evenly, said Elise Gould, senior economist for the Economic Policy Institute, who said white workers are benefiting disproportionately.
“An increase in jobs is a positive sign but a concern that isn’t broadly shared is the Black unemployment rate showed no improvement nationally, it actually increased,” Gould said.
Tucson Sentinel
July 1, 2020
Over 42 million people, about a fourth of American workers, have reportedly filed for unemployment in the past two months. A survey from the Economic Policy Institute in April estimated that figure is lower than the true number of Americans out of work, saying that more people could’ve filed if unemployment processes were easier.
CNET
July 1, 2020
Fletcher and the other panelists – Unite Here Vice President Nia Winston, Jhacova Williams of the Economic Policy Institute and Tanya Wallace-Gobern of the National Black Workers Center – reached those conclusions when the entire nation is, for once, focusing on the endemic racism that has permeated U.S. society for 401 years.
People’s World
July 1, 2020
More than 50 percent of Americans get their health insurance through their employer. Since mid-March, close to 47 million Americans have sought jobless aid. A recent analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute forecast that 3.5 million workers lost their insurance in just the last two weeks of March.
Fox Business
July 1, 2020
While it’s true that businesses are reopening across the country (however irresponsible that is from a public health perspective), it’s also the case that, as Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell said earlier this month, there will be “a significant chunk . . . who don’t get to go back to their old job, and there may not be a job in that industry for them for some time.” The Economic Policy Institute reports that nearly 11 percent of the workforce is out of work and has no reasonable chance of getting called back to a prior job.
Jacobin
July 1, 2020
‘While many advisors have their retirement clients’ best interests in mind, unethical ones have put their own profit motives ahead of their retirement clients’ interests. According to the Economic Policy Institute, ‘every year, retirement savers lose $17 billion acting on advice from financial advisors who have conflicts of interest.’ The Obama administration sought to address this problem by issuing a sensible rule that closed these loopholes and prohibited advisors from ripping off their retirement clients.
Public
July 1, 2020
On the other hand, an increase in the minimum wage — particularly during this pandemic — could help consumer demand recover, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) argued.
“If anything, current conditions make it even more important for governments to strengthen pay standards, especially those that help low-income households’” wrote EPI’s Senior Economic Analyst David Cooper in a recent report.
Yahoo Finance
July 1, 2020
However, it’s important to remember that the world has changed a lot since then. The Economic Policy Institute reported in 2019 that about 1 in 20 young college graduates is unemployed, and 1 in 10 is underemployed, working at a job that doesn’t require a college degree. Dr. Gene Beresin, a staff child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Rand Spero, president of Street Smart Financial, writing for The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, stress that in today’s economy, it’s quite common for college graduates to spend some time living with their parents.
Money Crashers
July 1, 2020