Economic Policy Institute’s Valerie Wilson examines steps needed to address economic inequality in the United States. She speaks on “Bloomberg Markets: European Close.”
Bloomberg TV
June 16, 2020
Marketplace
June 16, 2020
The police and courts benefit the rich. For example, a 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that in the ten most populous states, an estimated 2.4 million people lose a combined $8 billion in income every year to different forms of wage theft by their employers. That’s nearly half as much as all other property theft combined, according to FBI stats from 2018.
Socialist Alternative Minnesota
June 16, 2020
“If all the 32.5 million workers who are out of work as a result of the virus had shown up as unemployed, the unemployment rate would have been 19.7% in May instead of 13.3%,” said Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz.
The Register-Mail
June 16, 2020
“It is imperative that policymakers do not take this as a sign that it’s time to stop providing necessary relief to workers, their families, and state and local governments,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, agreed. “The economic pain will be long-standing without additional aid.”
Salon
June 16, 2020
In sectors such as leisure and hospitality, as well as many jobs in health care, construction and manufacturing, “there is very little ability to work from home and be able to juggle your hours around child care,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The situation also has a disproportionate effect on women, she said, who remain more likely to assume the burden of caring for children and elders, even if they work outside the home.
Politico
June 16, 2020
“This has been driven by pretty intentional policy decisions, and the root of all those policy decisions has been an attempt to tilt the playing field away from typical workers and towards employers and capital owners in the labor market,” Josh Bivens, an economist at the labor-union-affiliated Economic Policy Institute, told me. “Ten years ago, if you would ask people about inequality, even people who call themselves liberal Democrats, they would have been genuinely concerned about it and genuinely thought it was a bad thing. But there’s this predominant view that it was a sad accident of apolitical market forces or technological developments.”
The Atlantic
June 16, 2020
The income divide remains wide although African Americans have increased the level of education they receive. The Economic Policy Institute reports the number of black Americans that have completed high school hit 92 percent in 2018, and 23 percent finished college.
Voice of America
June 16, 2020
Historically, Erie has had a difficult time with poverty within the city. In fact, statewide, this theory rings true as well. Information from the Economic Policy Institute shows that PA is one of only two states in the country that has seen a rise in minority unemployment rates since the recession over a decade ago.
Erie News Now
June 16, 2020