The coronavirus pandemic has sent shockwaves through the U.S. economy. In just three weeks, more than 10 percent of American workers applied for unemployment benefits, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Fox Business
April 22, 2020
In February, women accounted for 50 percent of the payroll and in March they accounted for 58.8 percent of lost jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that provides economic statistics and analysis.
El Nuevo Herald
April 22, 2020
It seems that this form of workforce tracking is becoming increasingly common in recent years. Walmart reportedly hired an intelligence-gathering service from Lockheed Martin and ranked its stores by labor activity when it faced protests eight years ago from the union-backed activist group OUR Walmart. Celine McNicholas, the director of government affairs and labor counsel for the Economic Policy Institute, said: “Employers spend millions of dollars a year to hire union avoidance advisers to see how susceptible they are to their workers organizing.”
Breitbart
April 22, 2020
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonpartisan think tank, H-2A workers are already underpaid compared to other workers.
“In 2019, the average wage of all nonsupervisory farmworkers was $13.99 per hour, according to USDA, while the average wage for all workers in 2019 was $26.53 per hour, meaning the farmworker wage was just 53% of the average for all workers,” read an EPI post. “And the average wage for production and nonsupervisory nonfarm workers—the most logical cohort for workers outside of agriculture to compare with farmworkers—was $23.51.
Visalia Times Delta
April 22, 2020
In March, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that California will lose over 1.6 million jobs by this summer, close to a quarter of which will be in the leisure, hospitality and retail sectors. Nowhere will this be more acutely felt than Los Angeles County where fashion, food and tourism are staples of our economy. And a recent report released by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, and Ong & Associates finds this could affect Latino and Asian neighborhoods the most, leaving families scrambling for solutions without the means to pay rent or put food on the table. These communities are also the ones that will likely not receive a fair share from emergency financial relief programs.
NBC News
April 22, 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
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
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
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
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