9.2 million workers are at risk of losing employer-provided health insurance in the last four weeks, according to recent EPI data. Economic Policy Institute Director of Research Josh Bivens joins Yahoo FInance’s Seana Smith to break down the details.
Yahoo Finance
April 21, 2020
In the four weeks leading up to April 11, the number of unemployment claims passed 22 million. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), that means that roughly 9.2 million workers likely lost their employer-sponsored health insurance during that time.
“As people continue to lose their jobs, which we expect that they will do unfortunately, we’re going to see losses in health insurance coverage,” Ben Zipperer, an economist at EPI, told Yahoo Finance. “That’s because in the United States, we’ve chosen as a country, unfortunately, to tie access to health insurance with employment.”
He continued: “If we avoided that, if we made sure everybody was covered, everybody has access to health insurance regardless of their employment status, we wouldn’t be in this kind of predicament.”
Yahoo Finance
April 21, 2020
Though not exhaustive, some other names on the Sanders campaign’s early list include Heather Boushey, an inequality expert with the Washington Center for Equitable Growth; Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, two leading economists in the world of wealth inequality and progressive taxation; Jeffrey Sachs, who runs Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development; Josh Bivens, an economist with progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute; Daniel Kammen, who runs the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab at University of California, Berkeley; Tara Raghuveer, an affordable housing activist who runs the Kansas City Tenants group; and Bonnie Castillo, the executive director with the National Nurses Union.
The Huffington Post
April 21, 2020
“Employers spend millions of dollars a year to hire union avoidance advisers to see how susceptible they are to their workers organizing,” Celine McNicholas, the director of government affairs and labor counsel for the Economic Policy Institute, said.
Overall, US companies spent at least $100 million on consulting services for anti-union campaigns between 2014 and 2017, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute based on disclosure forms filed with the US Department of Labor.
Business Insider
April 21, 2020
However, the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has pointed out that only about 40% of workers are typically returning workers, and that halting the processing of new H-2A applications for an extended period of time could lead to a shortage of as many as 60,000 workers at a time when we’re facing peak summer demand.
Food Dive
April 21, 2020
Julia Wolfe, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, says to save truly small businesses, future legislation must be more clear.
“It’s not only a problem that folks are applying for it who might not be the target group. An even bigger problem is small businesses thinking that they don’t qualify or being worried about the strings attached and not understanding it. And they don’t end up applying for this loan that would actually benefit them and benefit their employees,” she said.
Spectrum News 1
April 21, 2020
In the U.S., growth in output per hour has not translated into similar growth in income per hour. Workers have been creating more goods and services per unit of time, but they have not been earning much more in compensation. The Economic Policy Institute analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that while net productivity rose 69.6% from 1979 to 2018, wages only grew 11.6% (after adjusting for inflation).4
Investopedia
April 21, 2020
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a rule making it harder for workers to win and keep a union. At the same time, the Trump NLRB has suspended all union elections, including mail ballot elections.
St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune
April 21, 2020
But just as nurses and other workers are seeking to organize new shops, the Trump administration has thrown a formidable obstacle in their path. On March 31st, the NLRB—currently comprised of three Republicans—issued new rules for union elections. These changes will make it “nearly impossible” for workers to organize a new union, according to Celine McNichols, government affairs director at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). One rule change stipulates that NLRB-organized union elections will proceed even if workers have accused their employer of an “unfair labor practice”—such as making false statements to workers about the consequences of unionization—making it easier for employers to illegally interfere with elections. Another rule allows a minority of members to file for an election to decertify a union just 45 days after an employer has voluntarily recognized it, incentivizing employers to put off bargaining in the hope of seeing the union dissolved.
Jewish Current
April 21, 2020
The closures also threw 22 million people out of jobs so far, shooting the U.S. jobless rate up over 10 percent, the Economic Policy Institute calculates. That hit led to the $1,200 electronic payments from the Treasury to most – but not all – adults in the U.S. and $500 per child. It also led to expansion of jobless benefits by $600 for each person who gets them, but state jobless benefit systems have crashed under the workload.
Common Dreams
April 21, 2020