But without a reasonable national standard, more people will be living in poverty, even while employed, says Heidi Shierholz, leader of the Economic Policy Institute’s policy team and the former chief economist to the Labor secretary during the Obama administration. “It’s just that basically, there is no county in the United States where somebody can make it month to month” on minimum wage now – even an individual without children, she says.
While the public impression of a minimum wage employee might be a teenager working at a fast-food restaurant, Shierholz says, many older adults work for the minimum as well. There are more people 55 and older earning minimum wage than those 19 or younger, she notes, and the average age of a minimum-wage employee is 35.
US News
August 12, 2019
“Gov. Sununu’s veto displays a misinformed and wrongheaded approach to pressing economic issues in New Hampshire. In a statement he released explaining his veto, he contends that only a minute number of workers would have been affected by a higher wage. According to estimates by the Economic Policy Institute, however, approximately 15 percent of workers would have benefitted from a $12 by 2022 minimum wage
NELP
August 12, 2019
24/7 Wall St. used the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator to identify the most expensive place in every state. We ranked counties based on the estimated monthly costs for a single adult to maintain a modest yet adequate standard of living.
MSN
August 12, 2019
Many economic development experts – including the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit that studies economic issues for low- to middle-income populations — have concluded that “public education, including the built infrastructure to support it, is key to the economic prosperity of our communities and nation.”
The Twin-City News
August 12, 2019
How acute nationally is the problem this school year? It’s hard to say with certainty. Earlier this year, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute said in a report that the shortage is “real, large and growing, and worse than we thought.” “When indicators of teacher quality (certification, relevant training, experience, etc.) are taken into account, the shortage is even more acute than currently estimated, with high-poverty schools suffering the most from the shortage of credentialed teachers,” the report said.
NELP
August 12, 2019
A recent study from the Economic Policy Institute showed that US teachers are paid a lot less than other college graduates, with weekly wages more than 20% lower than non-teaching professions.
RTÉ
August 12, 2019
Unfilled teaching positions aren’t unique to Clark County. School districts nationwide have faced teacher shortages in recent years, a trend driven by low pay and overall disinvestment in public education, according to the liberal-leaning, nonprofit think tank the Economic Policy Institute and the American Federation of Teachers, a national educators’ union.
Las Vegas Sun
August 12, 2019
On average, working parents are paying $15,394 annually — $1,283 per month — for daily childcare services, an amount surpassing costs for public college and housing in New York, according to the latest data from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington D.C. think tank.
The Telegraph
August 12, 2019
In the Pioneer Press, Bob Shaw reports, “Tuition at Minnesota day care centers has reached an average of $16,000 for infants — the fourth-highest in the nation. That’s the average per year for an infant. It’s less as the child gets older. Child advocates say the high cost is a sign that the quality, too, is exceptional. … A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute examined day care centers — not home-based day care. The average annual cost for a Minnesota infant was $16,087, and $12,252 for a 4-year-old. …The blame for the costs — and the credit for the quality — lies with regulations.”
Minneapolis Post
August 12, 2019
This statistic is among multiple jaw-droppers contained in a new Colorado-centric report from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit that stresses its bipartisan nature. And Elise Gould, a senior economist for EPI, notes that the strain such expenses place on Coloradans crosses demographic lines.
“There’s been a lot of attention on how much low-income families who need infant care and child care are suffering in terms of their ability to make ends meet generally,” she says. “With the high cost of housing, food, health care and other expenses, many of them simply don’t have enough money if something unusual happens, especially if you mix in child care, which is very hard for a lot of families to afford. But the problem isn’t isolated to low-income families. It affects middle-income families as well. It’s a widespread problem.”
Westword
August 12, 2019