According to an analysis of DOL data by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, DOL’s Wage and Hour Division recovered $257.8 million in back wages for workers in fiscal year 2020, $322.5 million in fiscal year 2019, $304.9 in fiscal year 2018 and $270.4 million in fiscal year 2017. More than 1 million workers received recovered wages during this period, with an average of more than $1,000 per worker.
The Grio
February 11, 2022
Cites EPI graph on arbitration and litigation.
VOX
February 10, 2022
“Our models were all wrong,” says former Labor Department Chief Economist Heidi Shierholz.
Bloomberg TV
February 10, 2022
Reduced working hours have long been a demand from labor; unions won reductions from six days a week to five in the early 20th century, and the US Fair Labor Standards Act enshrined the 40-hour workweek in law in 1938. But while productivity has shot up roughly threefold since then, pay has risen by only about half that amount, according to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute. The length of the workweek has stayed largely the same.
WIRED
February 4, 2022
The three nominees “having better qualifications than dozens of past nominees and eventual board governors,” the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens wrote last week, proved no buffer to resistance from the fossil fuel sector and Republicans. He said that “organized opposition… mostly settled into a focus on Cook and Raskin.
Common Dreams
February 4, 2022
The Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould said on Twitter: “The hires rate remains higher than the quits rate in every major industry. This indicates that when workers quit, they are taking other jobs-likely in the same sector-not dropping out of the labor force altogether.”
Business Insider
February 4, 2022
The Obama Labor Department tried to fix all this. It made a practical decision to leave intact the dog’s breakfast that Bush had made of the duties test but doubled the wage ceiling from $23,660 to $47,476. If you earned less than $47,476, it didn’t matter what your boss said your duties were, he owed you overtime whenever you worked more than 40 hours. In future years the ceiling would be “indexed” to inflation, thereby preventing another post-1975 slide. The Obama rule expanded overtime coverage from 7 percent of workers to 23 percent, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute.
The New Republic
February 4, 2022
A 2013 study by the Economic Policy Institute on three cities that were under mayor control — Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago (paywall).
San Francisco Chronicle
February 4, 2022
“Public officials should seize this moment of greater fiscal flexibility to begin making the reforms needed to attract, keep safe, and retain high-quality teachers and support staff,” the Economic Policy Institute’s David Cooper and co-author of a new report said per a press release. “That means raising pay, enacting strong COVID protections, investing in teacher development programs, and finding ways to support part-time and part-year staff when school is not in session.”
Business Insider
February 4, 2022
The Economic Policy Institute says in 33 states, day care for a 1-year-old costs more than in-state college tuition.
Poynter
February 4, 2022
The child care crunch hits new parents particularly hard, because few day care centers accept infants younger than 6 weeks. Infant care is staggeringly expensive. Wisconsin ranks 20th among states and the District of Columbia for most expensive infant care — with an average annual cost of nearly $12,600, according to the Economic Policy Institute. A minimum wage worker in Wisconsin would need to work full time for 43 weeks to pay that bill.
Wisconsin Watch
February 4, 2022
In 2020, 60 years after the Brown decision, the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, reported that Black youth are twice as likely to attend segregated, high-poverty schools as their white counterparts.
Journal Courier
February 4, 2022
Companies often tout globalization as the necessary means to compete in a hyper-competitive economy, but new research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) suggests many people of color — including Black workers — have paid a heavy price during the past few decades
Triple Pundit
February 4, 2022
CAP Union is affiliated with the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, which represents other think tank employees in the capital. Katie Barrows, NPEU’s president, said the salary minimum at CAP is below other comparable left-leaning research institutions, such as the Economic Policy Institute ($51,700), the Center for Economic and Policy Research ($53,558) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ($50,000).
Huffington Post
February 4, 2022
Wilson will remain as director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE), a nationally recognized source for expert reports and policy analyses on the economic condition of America’s people of color. Prior to joining EPI in 2014, Wilson was vice president of research at the National Urban League Washington Bureau, according to a press release.
Black Enterprise
February 4, 2022
All high wage workers have access to paid sick days, two-thirds of low-wage workers go without, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Quartz
February 4, 2022
The following chart from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), an independent think tank, shows the growing gap between productivity and worker pay since 1979, during which productivity grew 3.5 times as much as pay.
In These Times
February 4, 2022
Dr. Valerie Wilson, Director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute, testified on the state of racial and ethnic economic inequality and the macroeconomic implications of allowing disparities to persist
Black Star News
February 4, 2022
A coalition of more than 50 groups, led by the Economic Policy Institute and including workers advocates and civic allies, is pushing a landmark law in California to empower fast-food workers and franchise-holders against McDonald’s, Burger King, and other corporate giants that now hold a grip on both.
People’s World
February 4, 2022
“The U.S. labor market, unfortunately, is still a racist institution, and what that means is that it underpays people of color,” Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute told theGrio.
The Grio
February 4, 2022
The soaring cost of child care is one of the most pressing issues facing families nationwide. The annual cost of child care rivals the cost of a college education in many states, according to a recent analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.
CBS News
February 4, 2022
The high quit rate for US workers can be attributed to employees moving on to higher paid jobs with better benefits – not simply leaving their roles to follow passions or start afresh. White House economists are stressing that what has been termed the “Great Resignation” is actually the “Great Upgrade”, as workers are staying in the labour market and looking for positions where they can provide for their families. President Joe Biden was keen to point out US unemployment has fallen below 4% for the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, while hiring rates are surpassing quit rates, particularly for lower-wage workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Curation
February 4, 2022
The number crunchers parsed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, Economic Policy Institute, and Zillow to determine how long it would take a two-person family to set aside the down payment on what is often one’s first real estate investment: a starter home.
The Motley Fool
February 4, 2022
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average cost for child care in Wisconsin is more than $10,000 annually.
CBS 58
February 4, 2022
Thanks to President Biden’s executive order requiring all companies with federal contracts to pay their workers at least $15 an hour, nearly 400,000 workers will get raises starting next week, when the order takes effect. According to tabulations by our friends at the Economic Policy Institute, the average wage increase will be $3,100, and more than half of the workers who benefit will be Black or Hispanic.
The American Prospect
February 4, 2022
Income disparity is worse for Wausau residents compared to most metro areas around the country, according to the latest research from the Economic Policy Institute.
Wausau Pilot and Review
February 4, 2022
And if you top off the cutback in fiscal spending with aggressive rate increases from the Fed, we could cut short a promising recovery, says Josh Bivens, director of research at the progressive Economic Policy Institute.
Axios
February 4, 2022
Take health care, for example: The PCE Price Index accounts for costs incurred by government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, as well as private insurers, where CPI does so just for health costs that directly impact Americans’ wallets, according to Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
February 4, 2022
According to a report published by the Economic Policy Institute, minimum wage workers are today effectively making 21 percent less than their counterparts did 12 years ago—when the federal government last raised the wage to $7.25.
Newsweek
February 4, 2022
“The layoffs rate hit an historic low in December, lowest since the series began in 2000,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute says in a series of chained tweets. “Job openings increased in accommodations and food services as well as state and local government education, two sectors still suffering some of the largest job shortfalls since Feb 2020.”
Reuters
February 4, 2022