Corporations frequently require workers to sign arbitration agreements, citing its speedier method of resolving workplace disputes. Their use has steadily increased since a series of Supreme Court cases dating back to the 1990s. More than half of workers are subject to binding arbitration, according to a 2018 study from the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg Law
January 2, 2020
“Broadly speaking, the economy is continuing to move along. We seem to mostly be on track to move towards full employment, but there is still some slack,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute, said in a phone interview.
Courthouse News Service
January 2, 2020
New research from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute finds that the shift to defined contribution plans—401ks—from defined benefit pension plans has increased retirement inequality for U.S. families, based on their income, race, ethnicity, education, and marital status.
EPI economist Monique Morrissey claims that this shift has placed the responsibility of saving on workers, “allowing policymakers to avoid fixing a broken retirement system.”
401K Specialist
January 2, 2020
Part of the answer is likely that employers are doing everything they can to stifle workers’ efforts to unionize, and they’re getting away with it. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute highlights the breadth of the wrongdoing, noting that employers are charged with violating federal law in four out of every 10 union elections, and of illegally firing workers in one out of every five union elections.
AFSCME Now
January 2, 2020
A new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that in 2016 and 2017, employers were found to have violated federal law in 41 percent of all union elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board; those violations include retaliating, threatening, disciplining, and even firing those involved in union activity. Hearst’s tactics so far have been standard fare among employers wary of unions, but there’s little disincentive for them to go even further.
Report co-author and EPI economist Ben Zipperer said that one reason union-busting employers break federal law so much is that the penalties are essentially nonexistent. “For example, if the NLRB determines that you shouldn’t have been fired, what is offered is back pay, minus any wages you’ve earned in the meantime, because you had to have another job in order to survive,” Zipperer told The Outline. “So there aren’t punitive measures you find in civil or criminal proceedings that are used as a way to disincentivize employers from pursuing these illegal tactics in the future.”
The Outline
January 2, 2020
A joint report published Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Popular Democracy details how Republicans’ 2017 tax legislation “delivered big benefits to the rich and corporations but nearly none for working families” in the almost two years since President Donald Trump signed the bill into law.
Common Dreams
January 2, 2020
At the time of the TCJA’s passage, the White House vowed that slashing corporate taxes would unleash economic growth and provide higher wages for workers. But there’s little evidence that has occurred, according to a separate analysis from the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
“What the plan has done is dramatically increase stock buybacks and exacerbate decades of rising income inequality,” said EPI director of research Josh Bivens in a statement.
CBS News
January 2, 2020
Minimum Wage. In California, the statewide minimum wage for most employees is $12 per hour.[8] It is set to rise to $13 in 2020.[9] The minimum wage is higher in some California jurisdictions, such as San Francisco, where it is $15.59 per hour.[10] As employees, California TNC drivers would be eligible for a minimum hourly wage of $13 per hour in 2020—or, in several California jurisdictions, a higher minimum wage. This minimum wage may exceed the amount that TNC drivers currently earn in average wages after expenses. A 2018 study by Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that Uber drivers nationwide earn an average of $9.21 per hour.[11]
Competitive Enterprise Institute
December 19, 2019
“Overall job growth is solid, but manufacturing is certainly taking a hit this year,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior analyst with the Economic Policy Institute. “And retail continues its slide” with a 4,000-job average monthly job loss this year.
Southern Illinois Labor Tribune
December 19, 2019
Low unemployment has contributed to some wage growth in recent years after decades of stagnation. From 1978 to 2018, median worker pay only grew by 11.9% when adjusted for inflation, while average CEO pay for the U.S.’s biggest 350 companies grew by 940% over the same period, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Citizen Truth
December 19, 2019