From the end of World War II until the late 1970s, according to the Economic Policy Institute, increased productivity and increased pay for workers ran
roughly parallel. Since then, the measures have parted ways. Between 1979 and 2020, worker net productivity increased by 61.8 percent, while worker hourly pay increased by just 17.5 percent. What happened? “Starting in the late 1970s, policymakers began dismantling all the policy bulwarks helping to ensure that typical workers’ wages grew with productivity,” explain the analysts at the EPI. “Excess unemployment was tolerated to keep any chance of inflation in check. Raises in the federal minimum wage became smaller and rarer. Labor law failed to keep pace with growing employer hostility toward unions. Tax rates on top incomes were lowered. And anti-worker deregulatory pushes—from the deregulation of the trucking and airline industries to the retreat of anti-trust policy to the dismantling of financial regulations and more—succeeded again and again.” Instead of increased productivity translating into increased pay and shorter workweeks, Wall Street investors made off with the cash in one of the biggest heists in the history of the American economy.
The Nation
February 17, 2023
It’s a practice that employers have repeated during subsequent economic downturns, Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
Business Insider
February 17, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual cost of infant care in Texas in 2022 is about $9,324, or $777 per month. The average cost for a four-year-old is $7,062, or $589 a month.
Jacksonville Progress
February 17, 2023
Teachers here in Nevada and across the nation consistently cite a lack of administrative support as a major driver of burnout. According to the Economic Policy Institute, more than half of teachers nationwide do not agree that school administrators are strongly supportive or encouraging. And more than two-thirds of teachers surveyed do not strongly agree that staff members are recognized for a job well done.
The Nevada Independent
February 17, 2023
Other studies have suggested potential improvements to high school graduation rates and college enrollment rates among students enrolled at voucher schools. At first glance, many would likely see this as beneficial. However, closer review by the Economic Policy Institute explains that overall high school graduation rates have steadily increased over the past decade, and they have done so at rates higher than those estimated among students participating in voucher programs.
The Post and Courier
February 17, 2023
“Hitting the debt ceiling is terrible, and making a deal that hamstrings our economy is also terrible,” said Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.
Wall Street Journal
February 17, 2023
In the Working Economics Blog, Josh Bivens, of the Economic Policy Institute writes, “The debt limit needs to be abolished — either formally or effectively.” The overwhelming majority of rich nations don’t have a statutory debt limit. Bivens argues, “The debt limit measures nothing coherent and has no relationship to any serious measure of the economic burden imposed by the nation’s debt. It has as much relevance to the nation’s objective economic health as today’s horoscope.
Boulder Weekly
February 17, 2023
But nothing says “esteem” more directly than paychecks, and, by that metric, American society has for years been systematically devaluing the work teachers do. Between 1996 and 2021, the Economic Policy Institute’s Sylvia Allegretto detailed last August, average teacher weekly wages adjusted for inflation rose a miniscule $29. Over the same years, inflation-adjusted weekly wages for other college graduates rose over 15 times faster, up $445.
Inequality.org
February 17, 2023
It’s against the law for companies to retaliate against workers who are trying to organize unions—but that often doesn’t stop them from doing so. According to recent research from the Economic Policy Institute, employers were charged with illegally firing workers in 24% of all union elections. That research uses the “most comprehensive measure of firings,” according to EPI, and comes from data from the NLRB between 2019 and 2022, as well as unfair labor practice filings from 2018 through 2022.
Fast Company
February 17, 2023
Advocates and experts also point to expanded access to no or low-cost early childhood education as a solution that not only benefits children but parents and the economy as a whole. Colorado ranks eighth in the country for most expensive child care, with an average annual cost of $15,325, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Rocky Mountain PBS
February 17, 2023
According to a 2022 study from the Economic Policy Institute – a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that addresses low- and middle-income workers’ needs – the teacher “wage penalty” – that is, how much less teachers make than comparable workers – grew from 6.1% in 1996 to 23.5% in 2021. Put another way, the average weekly wages of public school teachers – adjusted for inflation – increased just US$29 from 1996 to 2021, from $1,319 to $1,348 in 2021 dollars. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted weekly wages of other college graduates rose $445, from $1,564 to $2,009, over the same period.
The Conversation
February 17, 2023
“The picture right now is actually still pretty rosy, so you’re not seeing that kind of slowdown in a lot of the topline jobs numbers,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Marketplace
February 17, 2023
Employers regularly employ illegal tactics to suppress unions. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) of the latest government data on Unfair Labor Practice charges and union elections shows that employers were charged with violating federal Labor law in nearly 40 percent of elections – everything from firing to retaliation to changing work terms.
Labor Tribune
February 17, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, wage theft costs U.S. workers as much as $50 billion per year — a number far higher than all robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts combined. While we’re taught to be vigilant and lock our homes and cars to prevent robberies, most workers are not trained on how to identify wage theft and claw back stolen wages. Wage theft is also more likely to affect low-wage workers, immigrant workers, and workers with less education and fewer resources.
In These Times
February 17, 2023
While the federal minimum wage has remained stagnant at $7.25 per hour since 2009, many states have continually raised theirs. “States began instituting their own, higher minimum wages during periods of federal inaction,” says Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “So the longer the gap between federal minimum wage increases, the more likely some states went ahead and raised their own state-level minimum.”
CNBC
February 17, 2023
He worked 16 years at the liberal, pro-labor Economic Policy Institute before Mr. Biden hired him to be the chief economist for the vice president when Mr. Biden and President Barack Obama took office in 2009. In announcing his departure, E.P.I. officials called Mr. Bernstein “a tireless advocate for middle- and low-income families and for greater equity in the U.S. economy.”
New York Times
February 17, 2023
First, they face employers that are highly mobilized and unified in their commitment to sacrificing the rights of ordinary people to make higher profits. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently broke down how much money is being spent today on whittling away the wages and benefits of their employees—either by preventing them from unionizing or by seeking to break the unions their employees have already voted for. According to journalist Tyler Walicek, even with the EPI’s caveats about what spending they couldn’t fully account for, it concluded that “total spending on the union-busting industry amounts to at least $340 million a year.”
CNN
February 17, 2023
No other state in the country has a $20 minimum wage nor legislation on the books to reach that threshold in the coming years. The $15 per hour wage in Massachusetts that took effect Jan. 1 ranks fourth-highest among states and territories., trailing Washington, D.C. ($16.10), Washington state ($15.74) and California ($15.50), according to data tracked by the Economic Policy Institute.
WBZ News Radio
February 10, 2023
Elise Gould, of the Economic Policy Institute, takes the wide view.
“Except for in very short periods of time, the late ’90s or the few years leading up to the pandemic recession, workers have had very little leverage,” Gould told us. “You see that in wages, so then why wouldn’t you see that in their ability to take benefits?”
The Washington Post
February 10, 2023
Data from the NLRB showed that employers were charged with violating federal labor law in roughly four out of every ten union elections between 2018 and 2022, according to research conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington D.C.
The American Banker
February 10, 2023
Scarlet Fu & Katie Greifeld bring you the latest news and analysis leading up to the final minutes and seconds before and after the closing bell on Wall Street and tackles the surprising jobs report, the latest on Adani and looking ahead to the Exchange ETF Conference Guests Today: Stephen Stanley of Amherst Pierpont, Tiffany Wilding of PIMCO, Alex Merutka of Craftsman+, Jeremy Siegel of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Mimi Duff of GenTrust, Jason Pride of Glenmede, Julia Pollack of ZipRecruiter, Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, Vicki Salemi of Monster
Bloomberg TV
February 10, 2023
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, says it might be odd to think of policymakers as wanting to see wage growth fall.
“People are like ‘wait, what do you mean?’ And I think it’s important to note that inflation is actually coming down faster than nominal wage growth is coming down,” said Gould.
Marketplace
February 10, 2023
What did the tight labor market achieve? Probably its greatest accomplishment was to lift wages for low-income workers more than it did for other groups. An August study by the Dallas Fed found that wages for the bottom 20 percent in the income distribution rose 7.7 percent during the previous two years, compared to 4.8 percent for the middle 20 percent and 3.6 percent for the top 20 percent. Indeed, according to an April 2022 report by the Economic Policy Institute, low-wage workers (in this instance, the bottom 25 to 30 percent of the income distribution) were the only workers whose wage gains beat inflation.
The New Republic
February 10, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimated that total spending on the union-busting industry amounts to at least $340 million a year. However — because “loopholes in the law’s reporting requirements allow consultants and law firms [to] avoid reporting their work” — a full accounting is currently impossible.
Truthout
February 10, 2023
As a result of the investigation and with bipartisan support, former President Donald Trump initially imposed a 10% tariff on aluminum imports from countries other than Canada and Mexico in early 2018. After additional measures were taken against Chinese aluminum in particular, primary aluminum production in the U.S. increased 37.6% by 2020, breathing new life into the industry, according to a 2021 study by the Economic Policy Institute.
Courthouse News Service
February 10, 2023
Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank that researches economic trends and policies …(paywall).
Verify This
February 10, 2023
“The labor market is pretty strong,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, told NBC News. “The unemployment rate is low, and there are still people who have not returned to the labor market after the pandemic, so we can expect the labor force can grow. But we’ve had an incredible couple of years of recovery.” she added.
Forbes
February 10, 2023
The only sustainable and sure solution is to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. And then, and only then, index it to inflation or some other standard. The Raise the Wage Act would do this, phasing increases of the minimum wage in over four years, till it reaches $21.25 in 2027. The average wage earner would see their earnings rise by
over $3,000/per year, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Ithaca Voice
February 10, 2023
No other state has a $20 minimum wage or legislation on the books to reach that threshold. The $15-an-hour wage in Massachusetts that took effect Jan. 1 ranks fourth-highest among states and territories, trailing Washington, D.C. ($16.10), Washington state ($15.74) and California ($15.50), according to data tracked by the Economic Policy Institute.
Metro West Daily News
February 10, 2023