As Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute points out, increased public investments in child care and the elderly could reduce inflationary pressures. We will never be as cheap to produce as television sets, cars, or even robots. We will remain more valuable, even if we can’t be bought and sold.
The American Prospect
January 20, 2023
To talk about the Glacier case and what a SCOTUS ruling could mean for working people’s right to strike in the US, I spoke with Terri Gerstein, a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute and the director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program.
The Real News Network
January 20, 2023
Women living in states that restrict or ban abortion face greater economic insecurity than those living in states where they have access, new research finds. Since the nearly seven months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, half of all states – 26 in total – have implemented new abortion restrictions or all-out bans. In nearly all 26 states, there are lower minimum wages, unionization levels, access to Medicaid and unemployment benefits, as well as higher rates of incarceration than states with more lenient abortion policies, according to new research by the Economic Policy Institute.
Kaiser Health News
January 20, 2023
To find the best cities for renting families to live for under $6,000 per month, GOBankingRates used data from ApartmentList, the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator and Sperling’s Best. Collectively, this data allowed us to find the average 2-bedroom rent in 2022, determine the cost of children within select metro areas and find cities with an overall cost of living index below 90.
GO Banking Rates
January 20, 2023
Colorado teachers salaries have been well below the national average, and educators in the state take home nearly 36% less than other college-educated workers, according to a 2022 report published by the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute, which is based in Washington, D.C.
Colorado Sun
January 20, 2023
It comes as little surprise, but a new post from a pair of Economic Policy Institute experts — economist Ben Zipperer and state policy coordinator Dave Kamper — confirms that a key contributor to the stagnant low wages that millions of American working people continue to labor under is simple: out-of-date state minimum wage laws. The following is republished from EPI’s Working Economics blog:
The Progressive Pulse
January 20, 2023
(Paywall) – features Margaret discussing the BLS union membership data.
MarketWatch
January 20, 2023
A trio of Economic Policy Institute experts who analyzed recent data from both the BLS and the National Labor Relations Board pointed out Thursday that between October 2021 and last September, the NLRB saw a 53% increase in union election petitions, and “evidence suggests that in 2022 more than 60 million workers wanted to join a union, but couldn’t.”
Common Dreams
January 20, 2023
Union membership rates dipped slightly for a second consecutive year in 2022, according to data the U.S. Department of Labor released Thursday, continuing a historical trend despite the recent success of…(paywall – quotes Margaret on the union membership report).
Law 360
January 20, 2023
Research from the Economic Policy Institute finds that the compensation of chief executives has far outpaced that of the top 0.1 per cent of earners – a group that contains private company executives, corporate lawyers and private equity investors, who (presumably) all have similar skills.
Investor Chronicles
January 20, 2023
Jennifer Sherer, senior state policy coordinator with the Economic Policy Institute, said that the council would be a “transformative opportunity” to set new standards around fast food and service work. Sheher points to a history of wage boards working to set such standards in the U.S. and around the globe.
Modern Retail
January 20, 2023
In a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, analysts offer an explanation for anti-abortion rhetoric—Republican economics. EPI’s report, “The economics of abortion bans,” walks through the fiscal implications of abortion bans and how policy isn’t necessarily driven by religious beliefs but rather a form of economic subjugation.
Fast Company
January 20, 2023
In a nutshell, In the US, “retirement wealth has not grown enough to keep pace with an aging population and other changes, and the shift from traditional pensions to individual savings has widened the retirement gap” according to the Economic Policy Institute.
News 24
January 20, 2023
223,000: That’s how many jobs the U.S. added, mostly in the private sector. Meanwhile wage growth slowed, and the Economic Policy Institute says that proves the Federal Reserve Bank should stop raising interest rates and policymakers should turn to restoring the 452,000 public sector jobs lost since February 2020.
Policy Matters Ohio
January 20, 2023
According to the most recent data available for fiscal year 2019, an income of $540,009 per year puts you in the top 1% category. Based on that figure, an annual income of $500,000 or more would make you rich. The Economic Policy Institute uses a different baseline to determine who constitutes the top 1% and the top 5%. For 2021, you’re in the top 1% if you earn $819,324 or more each year. The top 5% of income earners make $335,891 per year.
Smart Asset
January 20, 2023
As Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, explained Friday in a blog post welcoming the announcement:
Given the current budget constraints of federal labor standards enforcement agencies—which are funded at just one-twelfth the rate of immigration enforcement agencies—the use of deferred action in this manner will encourage workers and whistleblowers to speak out without fear and will act as a force multiplier for underfunded and understaffed labor enforcement agencies, thereby assisting them in their mission to protect worker rights and hold lawbreaking employers accountable. This will make workplaces safer for all workers.
Common Dreams
January 20, 2023
Even so, workers may have signed contracts in those states anyway. “People are given a big packet on their first day of work — in many cases, when they have already accepted a job and turned down other job offers — and it says, you can’t keep this job unless you sign these things,” said Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg
January 20, 2023
Nationally, despite two-thirds of Americans supporting raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, it has stood at $7.25 since July 2009. Since then, it has lost 21% of its purchasing power due to inflation (in 2021 dollars) and 34% since its peak in 1968, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Reader
January 20, 2023
CEO pay is completely out of whack. Average compensation for the top dog has skyrocketed by nearly 1,500% since 1978, according to the Economic Policy Institute. As of 2021, the organization found, the average CEO of a large company received compensation of $27.8 million.
KTLA
January 20, 2023
With a new GOP-led House of Representatives, experts say it’s unlikely to be revisited any time in the near future. “It doesn’t look like there will be, at least in the next few years, any chances of anything happening legislatively,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute.
Harvest Public Media
January 20, 2023
Broadly speaking, pay for chief executive officers rose by just over 11% from 2020 to 2021, according to a report issued late last year by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. In 2021, CEOs were paid 399 times as much as the typical worker, the highest multiple on record, EPI said. The average CEO compensation was $27.8 million in 2021.
MarketWatch
January 20, 2023
While most noncompetes tie up executives and skilled professionals, some 32 million Americans are bound by these clauses, not just high earners. A 2019 survey by the liberal Economic Policy Institute found that nearly 30% of the businesses where the average wage was less than $13 an hour used non-compete agreements.
The USA Today
January 20, 2023
… according to the Economic Policy Institute. Supporters described the policy as seeking to help workers plan for child care (paywall).
The Denver Post
January 20, 2023
Heidi Shierholz, president of the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute, said that 2022 “was a year of real worker power, due to huge job openings. The question will be whether that comes out on top compared to the very, very strong downward pressure on unionization, because of employer opposition.”
The Washington Post
January 20, 2023
Because of rising income inequality, the share of Americans’ incomes that are subject to the Social Security tax is at a nearly 50-year low, per a new report from the progressive Economic Policy Institute.
Axios
January 20, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, states with abortion restrictions have on average lower minimum wages, unionization levels and rates of Medicaid expansion.
The 19th
January 20, 2023
According to a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the share of earnings subject to the tax hit its lowest level in nearly 50 years, since before reforms lengthened the solvency of the program. Only 81.4 percent of wages were subject to Social Security taxes in 2021 – far below the threshold of 90 percent of wages subject to the tax as set by the reforms in 1983.
Truthout
January 20, 2023
“So much of what typical people in this country have is based on their income and what they make in the labor market,” said Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute. But that’s not the case for the superwealthy, she said.
Marketplace
January 20, 2023
In nearly all 26 states, there are lower minimum wages, unionization levels, access to Medicaid and unemployment benefits, as well as higher rates of incarceration than states with more lenient abortion policies, according to new research by the Economic Policy Institute.
CNN
January 20, 2023
The report by the Economic Policy Institute also found that minimum wages are, on average, $3.75 an hour lower in abortion restrictive states compared with protective states ($8.17 compared with $11.92); and that restrictive states incarcerate people at 1.5 times the rate of protective states.
The Guardian
January 20, 2023