Many of those visa holders perform jobs that Americans would eagerly do in landscaping, forestry, recreation, construction and hospitality. The number of guest workers, or temporary labor migration program (TLMP) participants, in the U.S. is estimated at about 500,000 annually, according to the Economic Policy Institute. What is clear is that TLMPs displace U.S. workers. Because employers control their workers’ visa status and often abuse that responsibility, the practice has been criticized as the new American slavery.
Daily News
December 11, 2019
KQED News
December 11, 2019
Here to help us sort through both the economic and adjacent existential questions — and maybe even figure out some better numbers to “do” — is Josh Bivens with the Economic Policy Institute.
Marketplace
December 11, 2019
Unfortunately, child care is anything but low cost nowadays. The Center for American Progress reports that a low-income family pulling in a yearly income of less than $50,000 in 2014 will have spent one third of that income covering child care costs. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers child care to be “affordable” if it totals no more than 7% of a family’s yearly income. By that definition, The Center for American Progress says that all but the highest income families find themselves without access to affordable child care.
Romper
December 11, 2019
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