The $600 boost works out to working full time at $15 an hour, which is the minimum wage level that many Democrats in Congress support. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour, which has been unchanged for a decade and is followed by 21 states, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
FOX 11 News
April 30, 2020
A new survey by the Economic Policy Institute finds millions of U.S. workers who’ve lost their jobs have been unable to file for unemployment benefits, with state agencies unable to keep up with the sheer volume of new claims. This comes as the official U.S. unemployment rate is set to reach 16% or higher this month — levels not seen since the Great Depression. In Puerto Rico, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz says residents of the U.S. territory have yet to receive promised relief during an island-wide coronavirus lockdown. She spoke with MSNBC on Saturday.
Democracy Now!
April 30, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute found that for every 10 people who said they successfully filed a jobless claim in the previous four weeks, three to four more attempted to apply but couldn’t get through the system to file a claim.
Not only did it take time for guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor to trickle down to state unemployment insurance offices, but state employees have also had to figure out how to process the claims, says Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
That’s on top of handling the “sheer magnitude of … of people filing claims,” she says, adding that it’s even taking time for some online applications to be updated so their questions address the wider array of situations workers are facing.
USA Today
April 30, 2020
“Someone who lost their job but is not actively seeking work because the virus makes job search impossible will not be counted as unemployed,” said Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist at the Labor Department.
“A person who lost their job because they have to care for a child whose school or day care closed would not be counted as unemployed because they are not available to work,” added Shierholz, now head of policy at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Reuters
April 30, 2020
With many workplaces now being forced to operate remotely, long-term flexibility could be here to stay, allowing more women to remain in the workforce while balancing home and work life, says Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
April 30, 2020
According to the Department of Labor, about 26 million have lost their jobs and sought unemployment since the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. But a new survey by the Economic Policy Institute indicates that the true number of Americans who have lost their jobs in the last five weeks is likely much higher.
The Denver Channel
April 30, 2020
The unemployment figures, as bad as they are, are actually a significant underestimate of the problem, according to a new study by the non-partisan D.C. think tank, the Economic Policy Institute. Their survey of over 24,000 Americans found that, for every ten people who successfully filed for unemployment benefits in the last four weeks, three to four additional people attempted to apply but were unable to navigate the system to make a claim. Two additional people did not even try because of the complicated application process. Thus, they conclude, “When we extrapolate our survey findings to the full five weeks of UI (unemployment insurance) claims since March 15, we estimate that 8.9‒13.9 million [more] people could have filed for benefits had the process been easier.”
MPN News
April 30, 2020
Small local restaurants that operate without much of a cushion to begin with will be among the casualties of the coronavirus, says Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
“Many of these businesses have already closed because they were so specialized and couldn’t shift to something else,” she said.
Nasdaq
April 30, 2020