The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank that has blamed Chinese trade practices for the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, questioned the deal’s effectiveness.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
January 16, 2020
For example, in December of 2012, Ross Eisenbrey, then vice president of the union-funded Economic Policy Institute, was highly critical of Michigan passing the law.
“Right–to-work-for-less laws are about nothing more than weakening unions, lowering wages, and freeing corporate America to turn back the clock on employee rights and regulation of labor standards,” Eisenbrey wrote.
Michigan Capitol Confidential
January 16, 2020
- Wages are rising faster in states that increased the minimum wage than in states that did not. The Washington Post reported: “In the past week, minimum wages have risen in more than 20 states. Many of them are the result of increases that have been implemented in phases over the past few years, or indexed to inflation. Nearly 7 million workers began 2020 with higher wages, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank… A hot labor market helps, but policies that increase the minimum wage are a ‘really meaningful part of wage growth for low-wage workers,’ said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. ‘That is absolutely, undeniably true.’ …Our analysis of Labor Department data shows that before 2016, wages for lower-paid workers rose across the country at more or less the same pace. In 2017, things began to change. Wage growth in states that increased minimum wages began to accelerate. Over the past year, paychecks for those in bottom 25 percent of the workforce grew almost 1.5 times as fast as those in states where the minimum wage did not budge.” [Washington Post, 01/02/20]
The Lexington Park Leader
January 16, 2020
By one analysis, the wealthiest 1% of Americans captured a staggering 42% of all the income growth in the country between 2009 and 2015, and 59% of the income growth between 1973 and 2007. For context, from 1945 to 1973, the richest 1% accounted for just 5% of the nation’s income growth, according to the analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The Colorado Sun
January 16, 2020
Connecticut has been even more starkly divided between rich and poor, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
New Haven Independent
January 16, 2020
Reporter Craig Torres visits a rural community just hours from the nation’s capital, illustrating how difficult it is to improve opportunities for the less fortunate. Then host Stephanie Flanders delves into the issue with scholar Elaine Weiss of the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg
January 16, 2020
The report, published by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) on Wednesday morning, arrives at a politically important moment. Early childhood policy is getting more attention than ever in American politics, with leading presidential candidates and senior members of Congress proposing that the federal government dramatically expand support for child care.
Huffington Post
January 16, 2020
Federal, state and local governments spend $34 billion annually on early care and education, according the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Households, on the other hand, spend approximately $42 billion for child care and early education, the researchers said. They estimated that median hourly pay for early education teachers was $12.12 in 2019.
MarketWatch
January 16, 2020
I’ve tried to put it into my own words before, but now for the sake of precision and clarity, I’m going to quote from Heidi Shierholz and Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute. I’ve bolded certain portions for emphasis:
“We certainly hear widespread employer complaints about not being able to find workers. Why? One reason is monopsony power in the U.S. labor market. There is a lot of evidence that many firms have monopsony power, either because of a limited number of buyers of labor or other sources beyond labor market concentration. When firms have monopsony power, they are able to pay workers less than what their work is “worth,” i.e., less than their marginal product. But a key dynamic of monopsony power is that even though monopsonists would like to hire more workers, the low wages they offer mean they can’t attract more workers unless they pay more. That is, it is a normal state of affairs for a firm with monopsony power to wish they could hire more workers at the wages they are offering, but to be unable to attract additional workers because their wages are too low. So when a firm with the power to set wages below a worker’s marginal product complains about not being able to find workers at the wages it is offering, it’s useful to remember that it is choosing to keep wages low in order to increase profits—which remain high as a share of corporate sector income—and could get more workers by simply raising wages. And importantly, when firms with monopsony power complain about not being able to find workers, it is not adequate evidence of a skills shortage. What would be good evidence of a skills shortage? The footprint of a bona fide shortage of workers with certain skills is a low number of available workers with those skills combined with unusually strong wage growth for workers with those skills.”
The Fabricator
January 15, 2020
A 2014 report from the Economic Policy Institute estimated that 851,000 jobs were lost because of the trade deficit with Canada and Mexico. The same group found that the trade deficit in goods with China cost 3.4 million jobs from 2001 to 2017
The New York Times
January 15, 2020