One of the most commonly cited statistics about savings is the Federal Reserve’s annual survey looking at how many Americans can cover an unexpected $400 expense with cash or savings. In 2018, 39 percent of those surveyed didn’t even have that modest sum handy — a decline from 50 percent in 2013. Hence, individuals drawing down their 401(k)s. “People don’t plan around a steep decline in income,” says Monique Morrissey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank in Washington.
Governing
June 1, 2020
As governor, Mr. Walker decimated funding for public schools and colleges, cut health care, and tried to destroy unions in favor of big tax cuts for the rich and corporations. An Economic Policy Institute study found that states like Wisconsin that followed this strategy delayed their recovery from the Great Recession by four years.
The New York Times
June 1, 2020
A report in early May from the Economic Policy Institute found that 60% of H-1B positions are paid lower than the local median wage for that job. Top users are Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, Google, Apple and Facebook, EPI said.
The Washington Times
June 1, 2020
People of color are more likely to live in densely populated areas and work frontline jobs—as public transportation operators, grocery store employees and warehouse distribution workers, for example. And according to the Economic Policy Institute, only 16 percent of Hispanic workers and about 20 percent of black workers can telework, compared to 37 percent of Asian and 30 percent of white Americans.
Share Care
June 1, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute graft, below, shows how government policies reduced economic inequality after the Roaring Twenties, but how inequality increased after the 1970s.
Daily Kos
June 1, 2020
Infant child care costs Wisconsin families more than $1,000 a month on average, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Yet early childhood teachers make an average of $10.33 an hourin the state, despite being more educated on average than the typical Wisconsin worker.
Wisconsin Public Radio
June 1, 2020
A report from the Economic Policy Institute published last month found that for every 10 people trying to apply for unemployment, three to four couldn’t get through the system to make a claim, and another two out of 10 said the process was too complicated to try. Taken together, the study suggests, millions of unemployed people have been effectively locked out of filing claims.
The Next Web
June 1, 2020
A coronavirus delay might be a lucky break for U.S. workers. The Economic Policy Institute is apprehensive that the U.S. International Trade Commission’s projections about higher U.S. wages and increased employment may be based, much like NAFTA, on “questionable assumptions.”
Specifically, EPI doubts whether U.S. wages will rise as a direct result of improved labor rights enforcement in Mexico, a conclusion that the ITE model doesn’t validate.
Noozhawk
June 1, 2020
During the Great Recession, 74% of jobs lost between December 2007 and June 2009 were held by men. Men lost 6 million jobs, and women lost 2.7 million jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Manufacturing and construction, traditionally male-dominated, were among the hardest-hit industries.
The Journal Gazette
June 1, 2020
In the United States, these disparities are inextricably linked to race. It’s undeniable when you look at death rates. However, if you were looking simply at unemployment numbers, you might at first get misled. In good times and bad, the black unemployment rate is typically double the white unemployment rate, says economist Valerie Wilson, who directs the Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. But if you look at the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the black unemployment rate is 16.7%, which is higher than the white unemployment rate of 14.2% but not close to double.
NPR
June 1, 2020