On the other side of the debate was a group called Save Our Tips, which purported to represent the city’s servers and bartenders opposed to getting rid of the tipped wage, but was largely funded by the National Restaurant Association. Save Our Tips warned that ensuring a full minimum wage for servers and bartenders would mean losing tips. But that’s not what has appeared to happen in states that don’t have a tipped wage. There, servers and bartenders earn 17 percent more per hour than those in all the other states, including not just base pay but also tips, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
Fair Warning
July 9, 2020
“If Biden is president he will be up against this just incredibly, incredibly weak economy,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, and a chief economist at the U.S. Labor Department in the Obama administration. “Regardless of what’s going on with Covid, whether there’s a vaccine or widespread mask-wearing or not, it will be a hugely depressed economy.”
Bloomberg
July 9, 2020
This study by the Economic Policy Institute presents data on union membership, some of which I’ve posted below. The first chart reveals the revolution in public‐sector unionism during the 1960s and 70s. The second chart reflects the large differences in union policies between the states.
CATO Institute
July 9, 2020
While activists and government officials have advocated for the removal of these monuments as symbols of racial oppression, there’s also a financial cost to Confederate symbols. And it comes right out of Black workers’ paychecks, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
“Areas that actually chose to honor [Confederate generals] are racist,” EPI economist Jhacova Williams told Yahoo Finance. “Blacks are less likely to be employed in these areas. They’re more likely to be employed in low-status occupations, and they have lower wages compared to their white counterparts.”
Yahoo Finance
July 9, 2020
Wilson is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.; Gloucester Institute Emerging Leader; a Scholar with The Institute for Responsible Citizenship; and the Greer Dawson Student Leadership Training Program. He is planning to spend the summer interning with the Economic Policy Institute, writing and researching on the racial wealth gap and economic inequality.
HBCU Buzz
July 9, 2020
“With health insurance in particular we have a social support system that really isn’t very functional when you have job loss,” Ben Zipperer, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., told Bloomberg News. That’s a problem in the best of times, he said, adding, “It’s a real disaster when you have tens of millions of workers suddenly lose their jobs.”
KPC News
July 9, 2020
In 2016, the Economic Policy Institute published the Income Inequality in the U.S. by State, Metropolitan Area, and Country Report. This exposed Grand Rapids as the city within the state of Michigan with the largest gap between rich and poor. These findings were also never published or reported by any West Michigan media outlets.
Rapid Growth Media
July 9, 2020
“A community that you might not expect to be hit are the people who aren’t even on [unemployment insurance], but will just lose their jobs, because the spending that those UI recipients did was on goods and services that those people provided,” said Heidi Shierholz, a former DOL economist now with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Politico
July 9, 2020
Only 1 in 10 workers in America are part of a union. And for many people, having one would make it a lot easier to advocate for better pay and protections during this pandemic. But worker power has slowly been dismantled by employers and politicians over the years. [Larry is in interview]
KQED
July 9, 2020