In a paper analyzing the BLS numbers, Heidi Shierholz, senior economist for the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, a labor think tank, suggested that “the erosion of union coverage is not because workers don’t want unions anymore — survey data show a higher share of nonunion workers today say they would vote for a union than was the case 40 years ago,” she wrote.
Rather, she contended, the drop is the result of “fierce corporate opposition” and weak federal penalties for intimidating and firing pro-union employees. “It is now standard for employers to hire union avoidance consultants to coordinate intense anti-union campaigns,” she added, citing an EPI study estimating corporate spending of $340 million per year on union avoidance.
Los Angeles Times
January 23, 2020
What they’re saying: “The share of workers covered by a union contract is well less than half of what it was 40 years ago — caused in large part by fierce corporate opposition spending millions of dollars on anti-union campaigns and lobbying the government to weaken labor laws,” Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, writes in a note.
- “Despite this attack on unions, we’ve seen a surge of strikes in the last two years, showing that workers understand the importance of joining together with their coworkers to demand better wages and working conditions.”
Axios
January 23, 2020
Black children and teens are more likely to experience poverty and toxic stress associated with being financially unstable, according to the Economic Policy Institute. This creates an unavoidable childhood trauma that physically, mentally and emotionally harms these children as they grow into teenagers and young adults.
IDS Money
January 22, 2020
“The Trump administration rule is very, very weak,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute. “It is palatable to people who don’t want workers to have overtime protections.”
Estrella Independent
January 22, 2020
A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute cites a study finding 55% of Michigan employers require at least one employee to sign a non-compete agreement and 38% require all of their employees to sign one. While the share of those employees that earn wages close to the minimum wage is not known, those percentages are among the highest of the larger states and underscore the pervasiveness of the practice.
The Alpena News
January 22, 2020
Looking at the December data, Elise Gould, senior economist for the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), noted it was the first time there has been such an increase since 2010 when the Great Recession shrank the male-dominated construction and manufacturing trades.
Gould wrote on the EPI blog that men make up 77 percent of jobs in construction and manufacturing combined and women make up 77 percent of jobs in education and health services. But while construction and manufacturing together increased by 356,000 jobs between 2018 and 2019, she wrote, education and health care services employment increased by 603,000 jobs.
SHRM
January 22, 2020
A report published by the Economic Policy Institute shows that middle-income, low-income, college-educated, blue-collar, and white-collar workers alike are affected by rising income inequality. The authors cite a 9 percent raise in worker compensation contrasted with a 74 percent increase in productivity from 1973 to 2013. On the other hand, the top 1 percent of earners, and especially the top 0.1 percent and 0.01 percent, has experienced disproportionate personal economic gains compared to the bottom 90 percent of earners. Top 1 percent earnings grew by 138 percent between 1979 and 2013 while the bottom 90 percent of earners felt their earnings grow by only 15 percent over the same amount of time. This remarkable contrast in the distribution of income has far-reaching consequences and roots in historic policies and trends.
Hartford Courant
January 22, 2020
In the United States, a family with two parents and two children require about $5,466 a month on average to maintain a basic standard of living, according to the Economic Policy Institute (source). So, a family of four that follows the recommendation will aim to have $15,000 to $30,000 in its emergency fund.
Supermoney
January 22, 2020