While employers were ready to pay higher wages to get workers after the pandemic, an influx of foreign-born workers filled the jobs and reduced the shortage. Some 2.7 million foreign born workers, ages 25-54, entered the workforce over the past four years, according to analysis of government data by the Economic Policy Institute. That’s 96% of the prime age workers added over the same period.
Mankato Free Press
April 17, 2024
Trump’s NLRB members also allowed for the misclassification of workers, which threatened their ability to join a union in the first place.
Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is a rampant problem that, according to the Economic Policy Institute, “robs employees of their rights under the NLRA,” or the National Labor Relations Act, as independent contractors are not covered or protected by the legislation. Congress passed the bill in 1935 and it guaranteed the right of private sector employees to organize into unions, collectively bargain, and go on strike.
Courier Newsroom
April 17, 2024
Since 2009, the number of school bus drivers nationwide has steadily decreased, with roughly 192,000 employed, according to a 2023 study by the Economic Policy Institute.
KSBY-TV
April 17, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute suggests that “unions threaten the Southern economic development model” that traces its origins to slavery “because they have historically been the primary counterweight against businesses seeking to keep wages and benefits low.”
Quartz
April 17, 2024
Soaring violations and widespread abuse of child labor laws in multiple sectors of the economy have brought the issue to the forefront in some state legislatures in 2024, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Cal Matters
April 15, 2024
But while a 65-year-old is more likely to apply for a desk job or remote work than something that requires heavy lifting, said Monique Morrissey, a senior economist specializing in retirement security at the Economic Policy Institute, about 50% of older workers still have physically demanding jobs.
For many people, though, working into their golden years simply comes down to lacking enough money to stop working and keep a roof over their heads.
“It’s a tale of two retirements,” Morrissey said. While plenty of older Americans are working good jobs later into life by choice, others have struggled to find their place in the workforce.
CNN
April 15, 2024
(That said, a new paper from left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute says economic performance tends to be stronger when Democrats are in power.).
Fortune
April 15, 2024
Across the US, there are 33 states where childcare is more expensive than college, the Economic Policy Institute found. In some areas, infant care can set you back tens of thousands of dollars more than a college education.
Yahoo Finance
April 15, 2024
Cites EPI data on unemployment by race.
Crain's Cleveland Business
April 15, 2024
An estimated 36 million to 60 million Americans work under a non-compete, according to 2019 data from the Economic Policy Institute.
The CT Mirror
April 15, 2024
David Brancaccio: That 2-to-1 ratio. That is typically what we’ve seen over the years?
Valerie Wilson: Yes. In fact, the stability of that relationship between Black and white unemployment is actually documented for almost seven decades in national statistics. That disparity holds up across periods of economic expansion and recession. We see it for all age cohorts, for men and women at nearly every level of education. So, it is a pretty persistent racial disparity and unemployment.
Marketplace Morning Report
April 15, 2024
Almost half of families in the US have no retirement account savings whatsoever, while more than 15 million Americans aged 65 or over are considered economically insecure. “The retirement system does not work for most workers,” according to the Economic Policy Institute – especially not for Black, Latino, lower-income and non-college-educated Americans, though it often fails more affluent, white professionals as well.
The Guardian
April 12, 2024
In 2022, the average earning of all farmworkers was $16.62 per hour – that’s about half of the average hourly wages for all workers in the United States, according to nonprofit think tank the Economic Policy Institute
Blue Ridge Public Radio
April 12, 2024
Over the last year, about half of the labor market’s recent growth came from immigrants, according to federal data analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Berkshire Eagle
April 12, 2024
“Starbucks has not joined a lawsuit against the NLRB questioning its constitutionality or initiated similar litigation against the NLRB,” the company told Fortune, linking to a statement. As of March, the coffee conglomerate has 741 open or settled NLRB cases according to the Economic Policy Institute—although the coffee chain recently reversed itself and pledged to negotiate with its unionized workers.
Fortune
April 12, 2024
More workers filling more jobs and spending more money has helped drive economic growth and create still-more job openings. The availability of immigrant workers eased the pressure on companies to sharply raise wages and to then pass on their higher labor costs to their customers via higher prices that feed inflation. Though U.S. inflation remains elevated, it has plummeted from its levels of two years ago.
“There’s been something of a mystery — how are we continuing to get such extraordinary strong job growth with inflation still continuing to come down?’’ said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute and a former chief economist at the Labor Department. “The immigration numbers being higher than what we had thought — that really does pretty much solve that puzzle.’’
Associated Press
April 12, 2024
The Trump increase was due partly to low-wage workers being laid off disproportionately during the COVID-19 pandemic, the analysis said.
Economist Josh Bivens of the liberal Economic Policy Institute said the 7% figure goes back to Richard Nixon’s first term in 1969. He called the increase under Trump “artificial” because fewer low-income workers were employed, driving up the average.
Wisconsin Watch
April 12, 2024
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed a GOP-backed measure that would scrap work permit requirements for 14- and 15-year-olds. Wisconsin is one of 28 states where lawmakers have proposed weakening child labor laws since 2021, according to the Economic Policy Institute. (Bloomberg Government)
Bloomberg Government
April 12, 2024
Finally, the Economic Policy Instituteshowed that Illinois’ Black unemployment rate was…[paywall].
Chicago Tribune
April 12, 2024
TAPPER: Research public — published by the Economic Policy Institute last year suggests that women earn less money and stay in poverty longer when they don’t have access to abortion rights.
The Lead with Jake Tapper
April 12, 2024
A report from the Economic Policy Institute estimated that the real amount of wage theft in the country could be as high as $50 billion per year.
WKOW
April 12, 2024
“Unemployment has been at or below 4% for 27 months running, the longest such strength since the late 1960s,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
U.S. News
April 12, 2024
Across the political aisle, the progressive Economic Policy Institute (EPI) expressed similar skepticism about the USCIS proposals.
Responding to the NPRM’s solicitation for comments, EPI declared: “[T]he H-1B Modernization rule only tinkers at the edges of improving program integrity, but fails terribly to tackle any of the real problems that have been documented by investigative news reports, government audits, and researchers like ourselves – while simultaneously proposing to dramatically expand the size of an H-1B program that remains vulnerable to rampant fraud and abuse.”
The Register
April 12, 2024
Wages rose much faster for America’s lowest-paid workers than for their better-paid colleagues between 2019 and 2023, a new report says, a striking reversal after four decades of widening wage inequality.
Hourly pay rose by 12.1% in those years for low-wage Americans, from $12.06 to $13.52, boosted by policy decisions that aided those workers during the pandemic, according to a report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
In the same span, hourly wages grew by 0.9% for the highest earners, from $57.30 to $57.84.
USA Today
April 12, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute estimated 2021 average CEO pay at the 350 largest American companies was $27.8 million, including stock awards.
San Antonio Business Journal
April 12, 2024
A recent study published by the Economic Policy Institute evaluated economic performance from Harry Truman to our current situation. The Economic Policy Institute included its data and sources in their study, usually a sign of validity. A quick read of the study removes any doubt about which political outcome is better for most Americans. This link will get you there: Economic performance is stronger when Democrats hold the White House. Please look at this data series for the last 70+ years and acquaint yourself with information TV and blogs don’t have time to show us.
The Columbian
April 12, 2024
The recent uptick in the Black unemployment rate is worth watching, said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. But, she points out, “This is still quite low by any historical measure.”
And she said, other measures of Black labor-market performance are really strong, following years of pandemic-era hiring, and wage gains for low-wage workers.
Gould reports that at the end of last year, a higher percentage of Black workers age 25-to-54 had jobs than ever before.
And wages have improved more than any time in the last 40 years — growing nearly 1.5% per year since the pandemic, after accounting for inflation.
Marketplace
April 12, 2024
The gig economy is now composed of nearly 60 million U.S. workers, just under 22% of whom are in transportation and utilities, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
April 12, 2024
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told CNBC that although the numbers are concerning, she is not yet alarmed. In addition, she told the outlet that unemployment numbers by race and sex can be volatile from month to month. These figures represent a ratio of 1.55 to one, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Black Enterprise
April 12, 2024