For those on strike on Tuesday, $15 an hour is an urgent ask. The raise would increase the incomes of 32 million workers, including 59% percent of working families with incomes under the poverty line, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Nearly one third of all Black workers would receive a raise, and one out of four workers who would benefit would be a Black or Latina woman.
Fast Company
February 16, 2021
Max B. Sawicky is an economist and writer in the wilds of Virginia. He has worked at the Government Accountability Office and the Economic Policy Institute.
Jacobin
February 16, 2021
Other economists have disputed the CBO’s job-loss predictions – the Economic Policy Institute called them “wrong, and inappropriately inflated”. The long-running debate about the real cost of raising the minimum age will no doubt continue. What is certain is that Biden will face enormous political blowback if his campaign promise to raise the minimum wage falls so early in his presidency – a promise that during his campaign he argued was central to his plans to address racial inequality.
The Guardian
February 16, 2021
Detroit News
February 16, 2021
Undeniably, many older Americans cannot afford to retire. This also contributes to the aging workforce – the average 56- to 61-year-old has savings of just $163,577. This, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
401k TV
February 16, 2021
Those who don’t have access to an employer-sponsored plan can fall behind without perks such as employers’ matching contributions or the auto-enrollment of employees. As a result, 1 in 4 American workers don’t have even $10,000 saved for retirement.
“For many demographic groups, the typical working-age household either has no retirement account savings at all or only a trivial amount,” said Monique Morrissey, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
February 16, 2021
It would even provide relief to middle-income parents for whom quality child care can be hard to find and even harder to afford. The average cost of child care for an infant in Massachusetts is nearly $21,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. A family with an infant and a four-year-old spend over $36,000 a year.
Boston Globe
February 16, 2021
David Cooper, “Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers,” Economic Policy Institute, February 5, 2019, available at https://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-15-by-2024-would-lift-pay-for-nearly-40-million-workers/.
Center for American Progress
February 16, 2021
But as economist Heidi Shierholz of the progressive Economic Policy Institute pointed out to us, most economists now believe that a higher minimum wage does not lead to substantial and widespread job losses.
“That’s become a gospel that simply isn’t true,” Shierholz says.
Even the CBO points out the substantial benefits: Up to 27 million workers would receive higher wages and pay more in taxes, raising government revenue. Federal spending on SNAP food stamp benefits and similar programs would decline.
Higher wages also lower employee turnover, Shierholz says, and that benefits businesses. “It reduces the chaos in people’s lives,” she says. “If their car breaks down, they don’t have to leave their job that requires a car to get there. They can afford to fix their car.”
The Chicago Sun Times
February 16, 2021
Raising wages for jobs filled by temporary foreign workers could help draw more Americans to those positions, but that isn’t enough, said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy researcher at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington that advocates for low- and middle-income workers. The visa programs, Mr. Costa said, need to demand more of employers in both pay and recruitment of U.S. workers.
The J1 visa, for instance, a State Department-led exchange program for foreign college students, doesn’t require employers to show they couldn’t fill the jobs with Americans. Employers facing labor shortages need to scour regions in the U.S. with higher unemployment, Mr. Costa said, and offer prospective workers housing and travel subsidies.
The Wall Street Journal
February 16, 2021
Supporters say the coronavirus has made a higher minimum wage all the more urgent since workers earning it are disproportionately people of color. The liberal Economic Policy Institute found that more than 19% of Hispanic workers and more than 14% of Black workers earned hourly wages that kept them below federal poverty guidelines in 2017.
Associated Press
February 16, 2021
Actually, according to that same Congressional Budget Office, in 2019 the CBO said that $15 wage would boost the wages of 17 million people, while 1.7 million workers “could” become unemployed by 2025 due to the wage increase. Those are 17 million real people, with real families, whose lives would be improved.
However, Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, argued that the CBO’s estimated job losses from enacting a $15 minimum wage are “overstated.”
“The crucial fact is that an employment decline as a result of a minimum wage increase doesn’t necessarily mean any worker is actually worse off,” she wrote in a July 2019 report. “For a wide variety of reasons, a sizable share of low-wage workers routinely cycle in and out of employment; each quarter, more than 20% of the lowest-wage workers leave or start a job.”
Gaston Gazette
February 16, 2021
“We have seen this failure before, with fiscal recovery efforts following the Great Recession of 2008-2009 that were insufficient and too short-lived,” Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute think tank, wrote this past fall. “As a result of this austerity, it took a full decade for the labor market to return to even its pre-Great Recession health.”
Fortune
February 16, 2021
State AGs’ interest in the workplace is an outgrowth of their civil rights, labor, and consumer protection responsibilities and powers under state law. Urged on by groups such as the non-partisan think tank, the Economic Policy Institute, they have stepped in to interpret state executive orders and new legislative protections for workers, and provide guidance and resources to help employers address workplace safety and workers’ rights.
Bloomberg Law
February 16, 2021
A federal minimum wage hike to $15 would affect a large share of workers in the South, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning think tank.
Yahoo Finance
February 16, 2021
On average, restaurant workers make just below $13 an hour, according to Labor Department data. Retail cashier pay is about the same. That’s less than half the economy-wide average of nearly $30 an hour.
“It tells the story of an economy that has really tanked for the most vulnerable,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “It’s shocking how small a dent that has made in the aggregate.”
Associated Press
February 16, 2021
“We have seen this failure before, with fiscal recovery efforts following the Great Recession of 2008-2009 that were insufficient and too short-lived,” Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute think tank, wrote this past fall. “As a result of this austerity, it took a full decade for the labor market to return to even its pre-Great Recession health.”
Fortune
February 16, 2021
State AGs’ interest in the workplace is an outgrowth of their civil rights, labor, and consumer protection responsibilities and powers under state law. Urged on by groups such as the non-partisan think tank, the Economic Policy Institute, they have stepped in to interpret state executive orders and new legislative protections for workers, and provide guidance and resources to help employers address workplace safety and workers’ rights.
Bloomberg Law
February 16, 2021
A federal minimum wage hike to $15 would affect a large share of workers in the South, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning think tank.
Yahoo Finance
February 16, 2021
On average, restaurant workers make just below $13 an hour, according to Labor Department data. Retail cashier pay is about the same. That’s less than half the economy-wide average of nearly $30 an hour.
“It tells the story of an economy that has really tanked for the most vulnerable,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “It’s shocking how small a dent that has made in the aggregate.”
Associated Press
February 16, 2021
Andrew Hsu of National Public Radio notes that Economic Policy Institute (EPI) research finds that the measure would “boost income for people of color, who make up a disproportionate share of low-wage workers. Nearly one-third of African American workers and one-quarter of [Latinx] workers would see raises.”
Nonprofit Quarterly
February 12, 2021
Murphy, who introduced his bill in 2015 and is reintroducing it this year, cited an Economic Policy Institute study claiming that closing loopholes in the law will create 60,000 to 100,000 jobs.
TechTarget
February 12, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute, which receives some of its funding from labor unions, analyzed the same congressional proposal as the CBO but found more workers would see higher wages. It estimated the legislation would raise the pay of nearly 32 million workers and “meaningfully reduce the number of families in poverty.”
EPI also argues that a single, full-time worker without kids needs $15 an hour “to achieve a modest but adequate standard of living.”
FactCheck.org
February 12, 2021
But the jobless could fall off another cliff unless lawmakers keep extending jobless benefits, warns Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz, a former top Labor Department economist.
People's Weekly World
February 12, 2021
Limiting relief to the federal checks, without forcing wages to go up, takes the burden off the corporations who continue to underpay their workers. These same corporations were the primary beneficiaries of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. While keeping workers’ wages below poverty levels for decades, CEOs — in the top 1% — have seen their compensation increase by 940% since 1978. During the same period, a typical worker’s income has risen by only 12%. (Economic Policy Institute)
International Action Center
February 12, 2021
According to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, the cost for a modest standard of living for a single adult is $31,200 a year. It’s estimated that raising the minimum wage would have an immediate benefit on one-third of Black workers and one-quarter of Latino workers.
Hot 96.3
February 12, 2021
William Dudley, Bloomberg Opinion Columnist & Former New York Fed President, says the U.S. economic and labor market recovery could happen faster than people think. Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities Analyst, sees a tidal wave of tech M&A coming. Greg Boutle, BNP Paribas U.S. Head of Equity & Derivative Strategy, discusses recent changes in market volatility. Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute Senior Economist & Director of Policy, discusses what it will take to get the labor market back on track.
Bloomberg
February 12, 2021
Googlers for Ending Forced Arbitration said in a blog post Thursday that the need to end forced arbitration has become “increasingly relevant during COVID as we watched employers and nursing homes evade accountability with forced arbitration clauses.” More than 50% of U.S. workers are subject to forced arbitration, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
MarketWatch
February 12, 2021
Although there’s a clear need for insurance coverage for the primary breadwinner in a household, a nonearning spouse should usually be covered as well. Life insurance can help pay for services that used to be covered by the nonearning spouse, such as child care, cleaning or home maintenance. These services, which can often be taken for granted, are quite expensive when you have to hire outsiders. For example, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the average cost of infant care in California is $16,945 per year, or almost double the cost of in-state tuition at a public college. Professional house cleaning can cost anywhere between $120 and $300 in major cities across America.
GoBanking Rates
February 12, 2021
Workplace injuries and illnesses cost the U.S. upwards of $250 billion each year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. ERA-backed startup Intenseye, a machine learning platform, has raised a $4 million seed round to try to bring that number way down in an economic and efficient way.
Tech Crunch
February 12, 2021