Economists will also closely watch wage data, because pay raises have slowed since early 2019 despite the ultra-low unemployment. Pay growth might have picked up slightly in January because 21 states raised their minimum wages at the start of the year, benefiting nearly 7 million workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
MarketScreener
February 10, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C., estimates that 56 percent of non-union private sector employees in the United States are covered by binding arbitration agreements.
Portland Press Herald
February 10, 2020
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, tweeted that the revision of 514,000 jobs “represents a meaningful slowdown from initially released data,” noting that average monthly job growth was now “weaker than 2018’s average growth rate.”
ABC News
February 10, 2020
“If there’s a savior of the auto industry, it would be [President] Obama,” said Lawrence Mishel, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C. “Against the advice of advisers, he made sure [auto] factories didn’t shut down in the financial crisis and he saved many jobs across the Midwest.”
MarketWatch
February 10, 2020
Much has been said about the global rise of populism and the extent to which this resurgent movement underlies both Brexit and MAGA. While globalism has across the board been a large advantage in the developed world, a price has been paid and largely by unskilled workers. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that between 2001 and 2013 the United States lost 3.2 million manufacturing jobs. Of the jobs that remained, wages fell. EPI estimates that trade with less well-developed countries reduced American workers’ wages by 5.5% among those without a college education. These farmers, furniture makers and manufacturing workers incubated a growing resentment of having been left behind and largely ignored by the political system. The time was ripe for the “forgotten man” on both sides of the Atlantic to flex his muscles and fuel the growing movements brought Pres. Donald Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson to power.
Amsterdam News
February 10, 2020
His claim sounds uplifting, but it may be too bold. “It’s difficult to compare [the median household income across time]” due to “changes in data methodology,” says Elise Gould, a senior economist at Economic Policy Institute (EPI). According to EPI analysis, the median household income in 1999 was higher than in 2018, which is the latest data year available.
“Therefore, 2018 is not the highest it’s ever been,” Gould says.
CNBC
February 10, 2020
Trump claimed last night that the “the years of economic decay are over” and in just three years, the Trump administration has “shattered the mentality of American decline.” In truth, the economy grew around 2.2% a year during Obama’s term, and about 2.5% a year during Trump’s time in office. This steady incline has marked the longest period of economic expansion in the U.S. in history, according to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
The Setonian
February 10, 2020
For Americans in the lower part of the spectrum, income has generally outpaced inflation by only a slight margin since 1974, according to data collected by the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute shows inflation-adjusted data for wages going back to 1973.
Politico
February 10, 2020
There simply is no substitute for labor unions. We are still powerful and impactful. And union members are not the only ones who should agree. Recently, I attended a conference of financial advisors. Called to the podium for remarks, I started off by stating some true—but sad—facts about unions today: Labor union membership is at an all-time low. Today, only 10.5% of America’s workers belong to a union. In the private sector, only 1 in 16 workers belong to a union. Compare that to peak years, in the 1950s, when union membership was at 40%. I went on to discuss some of our many victories, which I pointed out, although they were focused on worker rights, those rights are inextricably intertwined with civil rights. One needs to go no further than the fact that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 52 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee, where he went to join striking sanitation workers fighting for fairness and dignity in the workplace. Indeed, labor victories are not only about labor. Nor are they just for union members. Our victories are for all workers. Keep in mind that recent studies have shown that, as union membership decreases, inequality increases. The Economic Policy Institute, for example, found that annual earnings for CEO’s skyrocketed 940% since 1978, while the average worker’s earnings only received a 12% bump for the same period of time.
Amsterdam News
February 10, 2020
Some research has found that this increase is partly driven by states increasing their minimum wages. States that raised their minimum wage between 2013 and 2018 saw pay for their lowest-paid workers grow more than 50% faster than those that didn’t, according to an analysis from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The trend continued in 2019, said Elise Gould, senior economist at EPI.
“Year after year, we’ve seen states increase their minimum wage, either through indexing [for inflation] or legislation, and we have seen faster wage growth at the bottom in those states that have increased their minimum,” she said.
CBS News
February 6, 2020