Technically, the bill is a reintroduction of the earlier “I-Square” bill, but it includes enough revisions to be considered new. It increases the H-1B visa cap to 195,000 (instead of an earlier 300,000 cap), and eliminates the cap on people who earn an advanced degree in a STEM (science, technology, education and math) field.
Hatch, who is the No. 2 ranking senator in the GOP-controlled chamber, was joined by co-sponsors Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in backing the legislation.
…
“This bill is basically a wish list for the tech industry,” said [EPI’s Daniel] Costa.
Breitbart
February 21, 2020
GOBankingRates used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey and the Economic Policy Institute’s income inequality report to determine the average income for each state, plus Washington, D.C. Whether you want to be part of the rich and high-salaried or you have different feelings about them, here’s a look at how much you need to be “rich” in each state, based on the results of the data.
GoBankingRates
February 21, 2020
Lynn Rhinehart, Silver Spring
The writer is a former general counsel of the AFL-CIO and a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.
The Jan. 31 “Candidate issues quiz” [Campaign 2020 special section] was very interesting, but not for the issues it analyzed. It was interesting that climate change did not make the list. This existential threat to the planet receives so little focus that even a paper as sophisticated as The Post doesn’t consider it within the top 10 issues. Maybe climate change was No. 11.
The Washington Post
February 21, 2020
University of Iowa history professor Colin Gordon points to other national trends that he said have affected the state. He said executives have created strategies to “union-proof” their businesses, hiring contractors through staffing agencies instead of permanent employees and bringing in advisers to sway workers against organizing. (In an article last month, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that U.S. companies spend $340 million a year on “union avoidance” consultants.)
The Hawk Eye
February 21, 2020
In a pair of newly published opinion pieces, USA Today’s editorial board debates such an expansion with Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. Here’s a summary of the arguments:
These proposals are a gift to Trump and the GOP: “Republicans know that large segments of the electorate would be repelled by Sanders’ vast expansion of government spending at a time when Uncle Sam is already running $1 trillion annual deficits and is more than $23 trillion in debt,” the USA Today editorial board says.
The Fiscal Times
February 21, 2020
Childcare costs an average of $900 a month in the Kingsport-Bristol metro area, according to the Economic Policy Institute. It’s a few dollars cheaper in the Johnson City metro area. That makes sense. There a more children age 5 and under in Kingsport-Bristol than in the Johnson City area.
Don Fenley
February 21, 2020
Childcare costs an average of $900 a month in the Kingsport-Bristol metro area, according to the Economic Policy Institute. It’s a few dollars cheaper in the Johnson City metro area. That makes sense. There a more children age 5 and under in Kingsport-Bristol than in the Johnson City area.
Don Fenley
February 21, 2020
Information that the Economic Policy Institute updated last July shows that the median annual salary for child care workers overall in California was $26,360.
Route Fifty
February 21, 2020
But the working class is beginning to fight back against these intolerable conditions. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average number of workers who took part in strikes in 2018 and 2019 was 455,000, the highest in 35 years. The number of workers taking part in large strikes involving more than 20,000 people is at its highest level since records begin in 1993.
WSWS
February 21, 2020
Large work stoppages, aka large strikes, had been on the decline for years. That turned around in 2018—going from 25,300 workers involved in major strikes in 2017 to 485,200 in 2018—and stayed relatively high in 2019, the Economic Policy Institute reports.
“Through 2017, the general trend was downward, but there was a substantial upsurge in workers involved in major work stoppages in 2018,” Heidi Shierholz and Margaret Poydock write. “On average, in 2018 and 2019, 455,400 workers annually were involved in major work stoppages—the largest two-year pooled annual average in 35 years, since 1983 and 1984.” A significant number of them—10 in 2019—were really large strikes, involving at least 20,000 workers.
Daily Kos
February 21, 2020