Warning that the economic hit from the outbreak “will come fast” when it arrives and “hit lower-wage workers first and hardest,” Josh Biven of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute said it will be crucial for the government to introduce a swift and targeted response.
Biven called on the government to make a plan for “rapid direct payments to individuals” just as was done by President George W. Bush in 2008—when one-time checks of $600 for individual tax-filers and $1,200 for joint tax filers were issued—in order to stem the bleeding from the financial crash that year.
“We could use this model but do even better this time,” said Biven, suggesting $1,000 for each individual and $500 per child.
“Besides needing money to tide them over when they can’t work,” he explained, “low-wage workers could also use protection against being let go by employers when they can’t show up to work due to their sickness (or the sickness of family members).”
Common Dreams
March 30, 2020
“[R]apid direct payments to individuals,” recommended Josh Bivens, director of research at the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
CBS News
March 30, 2020
Fortunately, professors across Maryland are realizing that we must come together to make a change that supports all of us. Together, we can mitigate employer biases with hiring practices, ensuring all workers can be equitably considered for positions as well as advocate for improved working and learning conditions. Together, we can shift power. Unions provide a boost to women regardless of their race or ethnicity. According to the Economic Policy Institute, wages for women in unions are 23 percent higher than for non-unionized women.
The Baltimore Sun
March 10, 2020
Economists also disagree on the broad impact of trade deficits on employment. Some argue that imports necessarily reduce employment at home, while others point to offsetting job growth in other sectors through the same trade ties. Often any job loss is limited to specific sectors. Research by the Economic Policy Institute found that the surge in Chinese imports cost the U.S. 3.4 million between 2001 and 2015—and about 75% of those jobs were in manufacturing. This partly explains why U.S. politicians are often focused on the bilateral trade deficit with China.
Investopedia
March 10, 2020
“Trump told people that he understood their pain, promising to do something different about it,” said Robert Scott, director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute. “He has done something different, but it hasn’t worked.”
The Columbian
March 10, 2020
This is not surprising given the editorial cottage industry that has sprung up in the last three years criticizing Trump’s tack on trade, and his economic policy more generally. But despite the urge of pundits to lump Trump and Bernie together as trade skeptics and populists, there is a world of difference between their positions.
You may think, though, that this negative impact is limited to a relatively small group. Perhaps gains to workers overall outweigh the loss of jobs, say, in the reduced price of goods due to the efficiency of trade. But this is not true for the majority of American workers. As Josh Bivens, of the Economic Policy Institute, has noted, “A reasonably cautious estimate is that between 1973 and 2006, global integration lowered the wages of U.S. workers without a four-year college degree (the large majority of the U.S. workforce) by 4%.” This is taking into account the decrease in prices of consumer goods.
This is, Bivens points out, basic economics. Literally—if you look at a textbook for international trade, the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem says just this. Because of how advanced the U.S. economy is relative to its trading partners, the benefits of trade redound primarily to the benefit of high-end sectors, while we import cheaper goods from overseas rather than making them at home. Not only does this depress wages, it generates inequality. High-earners gain and low-earners lose.
Common Dreams
March 10, 2020
“According to a study released last year by the Economic Policy Institute nearly 14% of America’s teachers are either leaving their school or leaving teaching altogether, and school systems are having a hard time replacing them,” St. Louis station KDNL reported last month.
Business and Politics
March 10, 2020
American low-wage workers increased their earnings significantly in 2019, seeing higher wage growth than workers at the higher end of the income spectrum. And that growth was largely fueled by increases in state minimum wages, a new study from the Economic Policy Institute shows.
Axios
March 10, 2020
“On the whole, relatively strong employment growth and slower wage growth than expected in an economy that has had historically low unemployment suggests that slack remains in the labor market,” wrote Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “Workers are continuing to get pulled off the sidelines, but employers aren’t feeling much pressure to raise wages to attract and retain the workers they want.”
PayScale
March 10, 2020