The same trend line shows up in Corporate America’s CEO compensation. Since the 1970s, the Economic Policy Institute details, major CEO pay has multiplied over 15-fold. The gap between CEO and average worker pay has widened from a 20:1 to a 300:1 ratio.
Inequality.org
December 11, 2019
The Economic Policy Institute says while the USMCA is slightly better than NAFTA, its changes “still constitute Band-Aids on a fundamentally flawed agreement and process.”
People’s World
December 11, 2019
Thea Lee, former AFL-CIO deputy chief of staff and president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, also expressed doubt. “At the end of the day I don’t know how economically impactful this negotiated agreement will be,” Lee told Morning Shift. In a blog post she co-authored with EPI’s Robert Scott, she wrote the latest changes to USMCA “constitute Band-Aids on a fundamentally flawed agreement and process.”
Politico
December 11, 2019
At least one union, the Machinists, remains opposed, and others were noncommittal until they see text. The Economic Policy Institute, which is strongly tied to labor, called the agreement “weak tea at best,” a tiny advance on the status quo that will not reverse decades of outsourcing of U.S. jobs.
The American Prospect
December 11, 2019
“The USMCA will in no way offset or reverse the massive devastation caused by the original NAFTA agreement,” said the Economic Policy Institute in a statement.
Route Fifty
December 11, 2019
A new report on employer opposition to union campaigns released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that employers spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year against union organizing efforts, and were charged with breaking federal labor laws in 41.5 percent of union campaigns in 2016 and 2017. While the authors of the report, who gained access to unfair labor complaints through FOIA requests, could not comment on specific cases, they say the newly organized tech industry is no exception.
“Tech companies have traditionally set themselves aside as a cutting-edge employers. But what you’re seeing increasingly is that they behave the same way as Walmarts and Targets,” Celine McNicholas, one of the report’s authors who reviewed thousands of complaints filed with the NLRB, told Motherboard.. “When faced with demands of improved working conditions and respecting workers’ voices, they turn to union avoidance consultants. They’d rather spend the money there than on addressing the demands of their workforce.”
Motherboard
December 11, 2019
This morning, the Economic Policy Institute dropped a report showing that in more than 40 percent of union election campaigns, employers are charged with violating laws. This includes employers threatening, firing, disciplining, or retaliating against workers trying to form a union—actions that occur “routinely,” writes Celine McNicholas, a co-author, in a statement.
Mother Jones
December 11, 2019
December 11, 2019
A new study by the Economic Policy Institute finds a rising share of U.S. workers are subject to noncompete agreements—a factor that could be holding down wages and mobility. The study, which used data from a survey of private-sector American businesses with 50 or more employees, found roughly half of businesses, or 49.4%, use noncompete agreements for at least some employees. Nearly a third, 31.8% of respondents, indicated that all their employees had noncompetes, regardless of their pay or job duties. The findings suggest noncompetes are becoming more prevalent: earlier studies have found about one in five workers were subject to noncompetes, now it’s closer to one in three. —Harriet Torry
Institutional Investor
December 11, 2019
Noncompete agreements have long been used by hedge funds and other asset management firms to keep key executives and portfolio managers from leaving and taking their best ideas elsewhere. Now these employment provisions are widespread in finance and other industries, according to a report released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Wall Street Journal
December 11, 2019