The “Just Economy” proposal is a grab bag of progressive initiatives, based in part on Green New Deal and the Red Deal political platforms, that have been tried around the country, according to Freeman. The Economic Policy Institute reports that 46 cities across the United States have set minimum wage rates. (Freeman doesn’t suggest a rate in her proposal, she simply wants the city to have the authority to regulate the wage.) The income tax idea comes from Portland, Oregon, where voters just passed a 1% tax on individuals earning $125,000 or more and couples making $200,000 or more. The money will support programs for homeless residents. The just cause firing provision is from an ordinance setting restrictions on Philadelphia parking garage owners. Participatory budgeting was first tried in Chicago and has spread to several cities in the South.
VTDigger
June 2, 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.
Urban Milwaukee
June 2, 2020
The Black backs that white people stepped on to get ahead for all these years makes it impossible for the community to rise to the top without help. In 2019, the Economic Policy Institute established that Black workers are paid roughly 15 percent less than white workers. The median household income for Black American households is $40,000 per year, and the median household income for white American households is nearly twice that: $70,000.
The Independent
June 2, 2020
“This is about as close to a no-brainer that you could do as possible,” Glenn Hubbard, an economist at Columbia University and a former economic adviser to President George W. Bush, said on the conference call organized by the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
AP News
June 2, 2020
During a press call organized by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Mark Zandi, Glenn Hubbard, Jason Furman and Gbega Ajilore and EPI’s own Josh Bivens said there was no logical reason for the federal government to deny much-needed aid to states, cities and towns. Without such aid, they would be forced to continue slashing essential public services that are now, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, in even greater demand.
AFSCME
June 2, 2020
A report released Monday from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI) laid out in stark terms the abundance of factors against African Americans.
“Persistent racial disparities in health status, access to health care, wealth, employment, wages, housing, income, and poverty all contribute to greater susceptibility to the virus — both economically and physically,” the report’s authors Elise Gould and Valerie Wilson wrote.
The Hill
June 2, 2020
Likewise, Josh Bivens, director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, tells me some Americans will start heading over the fiscal cliff now, and “by the end of July, anyone who relied on [federal support] will find it gone … It’s under appreciated how reliant tens and tens of millions of people are on very short-term measures that are set to run out. There are going to be a lot of miserable people if this isn’t addressed. I can’t predict the politics of that outcome. ”
Washington Post
June 2, 2020
Valerie Wilson directs the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute. And Greg, you asked her about something that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said about COVID-19.
NPR Planet Money
June 2, 2020
By the numbers: According to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, titled “Racism and economic inequality have predisposed black workers to be most hurt by coronavirus pandemic,” more than 1 in 6 black workers lost their jobs between February and April.
Axios
June 2, 2020
“All recessions exacerbate existing inequalities by race and ethnicity—and always hit black and [Latinx] workers harder—but this one will be worse,” Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, told The Washington Post at the time. “It will be an absolute nightmare.”
Nonprofit Quarterly
June 2, 2020