That would require a more complex calculation by state unemployment insurance agencies — one they might be unwilling or unable to implement. “In a perfect world, I would prefer to give people a percentage of their income,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “But we might not be set up to do it.” . . . And Daniel Zeitlin, the director of policy at Washington state’s unemployment office, said that while he didn’t think it was impossible, any change would be difficult for a system already under tremendous stress.
The National Review
May 20, 2020
While he doesn’t attempt to describe it as a perfect solution, Economic Policy Institute Director of Research Josh Bivens has created a compelling new two-minute video that busts several myths about what would happen if the U.S. moved toward a Medicare for All-like program.
Check it out below and click here to read the Institute’s March report on the subject. At a time in which millions of Americans are losing their employment-based health care, Bivens’ argument is especially apt and timely.
The Progressive Pulse
May 19, 2020
As worrying as these blows to the country’s retirement system are, they are only the most recent assaults on an already inadequate, makeshift arrangement that’s been sliding deeper into crisis for years, if not decades. Retirement, for the majority of people, will be unattainable if nothing changes. A 2016 report from the Economic Policy Institute, for instance, found that nearly half of prime working-age households (that is, households headed by someone between the ages of 32 and 61) lacked a retirement savings account like a 401(k). According to one estimate last year from the U.S. Federal Reserve, a quarter of all Americans—including 13 percent of people over 60—had nothing saved for retirement whatsoever. And even for those with funds set aside for the so-called golden years, it’s often not enough: nearly half of respondents in a 2018 Gallup poll said they were expecting to run out of money in retirement. “If we do nothing in the next 12 years, 40% of middle-class older workers will be poor and near poor elders,” economist Teresa Ghilarducci wrote last year.
The New Republic
May 19, 2020
The non-partisan Economic Policy Institute estimated 12.7 million people lost health insurance coverage since coronavirus hit the U.S.
CBS Chicago
May 19, 2020
Landis Weaver told Waste Dive that CEO pay has risen significantly in recent years, often without a similar rise for employees. According to a 2019 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978. In 2018, according to that study, the average CEO pay at the top 350 firms was around $17.2 million. That number also accounted for stock options once realized. EPI argued CEO pay is contributing to “rising inequality” and reflects the role’s ability to set pay more than any dramatic change in job performance.
Tracking trends over the past few years, EPI found CEO pay fell 0.5% between 2017 and 2018 when measuring stock options realized, but grew 9.9% if measuring through stock options granted (i.e. exercised or not). Large stock option offerings, the organization reported, made up nearly half of CEO compensation in 2018.
WasteDive
May 19, 2020
Economist Ben Zipperer of the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute said that widespread furloughing of workers in state and local governments are the beginnings of a huge contraction in the public sector.
Noozhawk
May 19, 2020
According to the progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute, 29.9% of white Americans and 37% of Asian Americans can telecommute. But only 16.2% of Americans of Hispanic decent and 19.7% of black Americans can do the same.
The Journal Times
May 19, 2020