This week, the House is expected to vote on the Raise the Wage Act of 2019 (H.R. 582). The bill would gradually increase the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 to $15 an hour in 2024, index future minimum wage increases to wage growth, and phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers, youth workers, and workers with disabilities. Education support professionals, many of whom do not earn a living wage, have played a key role in advocating for higher pay. The last increase in the federal minimum wage was in 2009. According to the Economic Policy Institute, some 40 million Americans—nearly 30 percent of the workforce—would benefit from the increase, with women and workers of color who dominate the ranks of the poorly paid gaining the most. One in five children comes from a household with an annual income below the Census Bureau’s official poverty threshold: $25,100 for a family of four. Send an email urging your senators to cosponsor S. 150 and an email urging your representative in the House to VOTE YES on H.R. 582.
NEA
July 18, 2019
Nowhere in Alabama does the cost of a modest standard of living fall below the cap for subsidized child care. The Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator[7] estimates that the annual cost of living for two adults and one child in Huntsville is $63,360, including $430 per month for child care. In Selma, meanwhile, the annual estimated cost of living for the same family size is $56,695, including $387 per month for child care. And in Dothan, the annual estimated cost is $61,005, including $414 per month for child care.
The Good Men Project
July 18, 2019
But even teachers who love what they do, are supported by parents and administrators and can shrug off the less fulfilling parts of the job can feel compelled to find other forms of employment because of the paycheck they are bringing home. Compared to other college-educated professionals teachers are paid poorly, and, according to a study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, about 60 percent of teachers in the United States moonlighted in other jobs to help make ends meet.
Observer Reporter
July 18, 2019
“But even the CBO included scenarios in which no jobs would be lost. Economic Policy Institute economist Ben Zipperer says it’s an acknowledgement that raising the minimum wage hasn’t proven to be as dangerous as researchers once feared. He added that the CBO’s median estimate nonetheless appears overly pessimistic.”
“’While they are acknowledging some of the research,’ Zipperer said, ‘I think they are drawing on older research that the new research has pointed out is problematic.’”
NPR
July 18, 2019
With too-little policy support, it should come as unsurprising that the number of families classified as working poor has grown dramatically, with one-third of Americans earning less than $12 an hour, according to a 2016 report by Oxfam America and the Economic Policy Institute.
The Fayetteville Observer
July 18, 2019
Full disclosure: I’ve long advocated for minimum wage increases, so my “embrace” won’t surprise those who’ve followed that work. But the reason why I—and, more importantly, progressive institutions like the Economic Policy Institute, CBPP, CAP, and many others—have long advocated for minimum wage increases is that a deep body of uniquely high-quality research finds that prior increases have had their intended effects of raising low-wage workers’ incomes without leading to significant job loss.
United Steelworkers
July 18, 2019
“As a group, low-wage workers would be just unambiguously better off,” according to Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “The bottom line is, the benefits exceed the costs.”
The institute predicts that a $15 federal minimum wage within five years would generate $120 billion in higher wages. Since lower-paid workers spend much of their extra earnings, the wage boost would stimulate the economy and spur greater business activity and job growth.
The Economic Policy Institute makes the case that low-wage workers earn less per hour today than their counterparts 50 years ago, adjusted for inflation, while workers are producing more from each hour of work, with productivity nearly doubling since the late 1960s. If the minimum wage had been raised at the same pace as productivity growth since the late 1960s, it would be over $20 an hour today, according to the institute.
The Berkshire Eagle
July 18, 2019
Supporters of the $15 minimum strongly dispute the CBO’s projection that it would cost 1.3 million workers their jobs. The agency’s report “substantially overstates the cost,” Economic Policy Institute policy director Heidi Shierholz told LaborPress.
LaborPress.org
July 18, 2019
But analysis of the CBO report from independent nonprofit think tank the Economic Policy Institute found that the results of the study are “too negative” according to previous studies on the matter:
“While CBO’s central estimate predicts some job losses, CBO acknowledged in its range of likely estimates that there may in fact be no job losses whatsoever as a result of a $15 minimum wage in 2025,” the Economics Policy Institute analysis read.
Nation’s Restaurant News
July 18, 2019
Ben Zipperer, economista en el Economic Policy Institute, EPI, explicaba a este periódico que lo que se ha investigado sobre este punto muestra que hay familias que pueden dejar de calificar para ciertos beneficios pero “el aumento del salario compensa”. Según este economista un tercio del incremento de los salarios (alrededor de un 30%) se pierde para algunas familias o individuos que dejan de recibir algunos beneficios.
El Diario
July 18, 2019