Some tipped workers make 71% less than the federal minimum wage and are twice as likely to live in poverty than untipped workers, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute. They are also more likely to experiences hostile behavior or sexual harassment on the job, a separate 2015 study published by the Canadian Journal of Law and Society found.
Market Watch
August 2, 2018
As the U.S. House and Senate try to hammer out a final version of the Farm Bill, a new report shows that increasing work requirements for people receiving SNAP benefits, the program formerly known as food stamps, would end up hurting millions of Americans. Josh Bivens, research director of the Economic Policy Institute and the report’s lead author, said the move proposed in the House version of the bill would not increase employment levels, and additional requirements would be especially hard on people working in low-paying jobs. (whole story)
Public News Service
August 2, 2018
Recent reports from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) lay out the realities of low-wage work. The reports complement each other: The CBPP report, by economists Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach and Kristen Butcher, looks at the typical person who will be affected by policies that aim to strip people of benefits and what their jobs are like, and the EPI report, by Josh Bivens, director of research at EPI and Shawn Fremstad, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, further explains the likely outcomes of the work requirement proposals given the current labor market. (EPI cited throughout)
The American Prospect
August 2, 2018
Las legislaturas de algunos estados y el propio Congreso están debatiendo expandir las verificaciones de horas de trabajo para conceder beneficios de cupones de comida y Medicaid. Todo ello llega mientras muchas personas no trabajan a tiempo completo por falta de posibilidad, lo hacen con horarios erráticos en muchas industrias y por un salario mínimo que a nivel federal está atascado desde 2009 en $7.25 la hora y deja a muchas familias muy por debajo del umbral de la pobreza. Los economistas de los institutos de opinión más progresistas, como Economic Policy Institute, creen que comprometer la red social básica de muchas familias no solo va a causar más hambre y peor atención de salud sino que además no va a hacer gran cosa por rebajar el desempleo. La mayoría de los receptores de estas ayudas trabajan pero aún así son pobres. (whole story)
La Opinion
August 2, 2018
The analysts at the Economic Policy Institute have hit on something here, in their new analysis on proposals to impose work requirements on programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP, or food stamps): We find that the tests proposed are excessively rigid and seem designed to maximize failure rather than to help working-class people succeed. (whole story)
Daily Kos
August 2, 2018
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the top 1 percent nationally emerged from the last recession earning 25.3 times annually what the bottom 99 percent earned, on average. In Connecticut the ratio is 43-to-1, and in Fairfield County alone it is 74-to-1.
The Connecticut Mirror
August 2, 2018
- CBS reports that five states – Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, NewYork, and Wyoming – now have worse inequality than the United States did during the gilded age of the 1920s.
Explore income trends with the Economic Policy Institute’s new income inequality interactive tool. For articles making sense of the data check out Moneyish and this piece on the top 1% in Colorado. In related news, the middle class is taking a slide down the income mobility ladder.
Just Taxes Blog
August 2, 2018
The most rigorous, verifiable and comprehensive studies, including a series from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, show that average wages, health benefits and tax-funded services are lower, in some cases much lower, in states with laws similar to Prop A. A 2015 study by the EPI found wages are 3.1 percent lower in states with laws like Prop A, even after controlling for other variables that impact wages, including demographics, full-time status, industry mix, unemployment rates and costs of living. A 2017 study by Frank Manzo IV and Robert Bruno [for the EPI in Illinois], examined the impact of the passage of laws like Prop A in Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. It found wages and benefits declined in nearly allindustries and occupations – even among nonunionized workers. This included police, firefighters, educators and health care workers, as well as administrative, retail and sales occupations. If your job is somewhere on that list, you have reason to be concerned about the passage of Prop A.
Springfield Business Journal
August 2, 2018
But on the flip side, salaries are 3.1 percent lower, or $1,558 less a year, in states with right-to-work compared to non-right-to-work states, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank with ties to labor.
Call Newspapers
August 2, 2018
Bolstered by economic analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, the budget provides a compelling alternative direction for this country and a stark contrast to the perverse values and priorities that now dominate our corrupted politics. Yet, in many ways, it is a centrist document, reflecting the common sense and basic priorities of the majority of Americans.
The Washington Post
August 2, 2018