This bill is a response to the overwhelming prevalence of mandatory arbitration agreements in the American private sector. As the Economic Policy Institute explains, under mandatory arbitration agreements “workers whose rights are violated can’t pursue their claims in court but must submit to arbitration procedures that research shows overwhelmingly favor employers.”
Quartz
April 6, 2018
While the divides in median income and homeownership mirror similar disparities in other American cities, particularly as they apply to black males, the gaps between blacks and whites in Sacramento County exist in stark contrast to California’s image as a liberal nirvana in which ethnic populations have equal access to the ladder of upward economic mobility. Employment numbers are another key metric of a population’s overall health, and black Californians consistently lag behind whites and, increasingly, behind Hispanics, as well: In the third quarter of 2017, black unemployment in California was 7.9 percent, outpacing the rate for Hispanics (5.6 percent), whites (4.4 percent) and Asian residents (3.9 percent), according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The New York Times
April 6, 2018
According to Bloomberg News and independent analysis, the steel and aluminum tariffs have the potential to add 19,000 new jobs to the U.S. economy. Furthermore, the Economic Policy Institute – a well-respected think tank in Washington – also concluded that the estimates of jobs lost and harm espoused by some due to the steel and aluminum tariffs are “wildly exaggerated.”
Fox News
April 6, 2018
Are teachers underpaid? Teacher pay has been in the news recently as a wave of teacher walkouts and strikes has hit red states like West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky, and a recent CBS News poll found that most people say yes. Overall, 68 percent of people said teachers were underpaid, but there were striking regional differences, with just 60 percent of people in the northeast agreeing while 76 percent in the south said so. Turns out, whatever state you live in, if you think your state’s teachers are underpaid, you’re right. An Economic Policy Institute analysis shows that: (snapshot figure included)
Daily Kos
April 6, 2018
I, then, discuss with EPI’s John Bivens how unemployment is tied to a too-secret search for the new head of the Federal Reserve Board of New York, one of the most powerful jobs in the system. (Josh’s interview ~21:00 mark)
Working Life
April 5, 2018
Our schools are more racially divided than before the Brown decision in1954. The Economic Policy Institute shows a vast gap between black and white earnings and wealth. Our public schools and teachers are funded less today than in the 1980s, with many new teachers unable to afford a home.
PennLive
April 5, 2018
According to the Economic Policy Institute’s recent report, “With respect to homeownership, unemployment and incarceration, America has failed to deliver any progress for African-Americans over the last five decades. In these areas, their situation either has failed to improve relative to whites or has worsened. In 2017, the black unemployment rate was 7.5 percent, up from 6.7 percent in 1968, and is still roughly twice the white unemployment rate. In 2015, the black homeownership rate was just over 40 percent, virtually unchanged since 1968, and trailing a full 30 points behind the white homeownership rate, which saw modest gains over the same period. And the share of African-Americans in prison or jail almost tripled between 1968 and 2016 and is currently more than six times the white incarceration rate.”
The Hill
April 5, 2018
From the Economic Policy Institute: 50 years after the Kerner Commission, black Americans are not economically equal “Black Americans have clearly put a tremendous amount of personal effort into improving their social and economic standing, but that effort only goes so far when you’re working within structures that were never intended to give equal outcomes,” said economist Valerie Rawlston Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy.
The Washington Post
April 5, 2018
Yet 50 years after the Kerner Commission delivered a report to President Lyndon Johnson on the unrest in African American communities, recent data show much of what King fought to dismantle remains in place. An Economic Policy Institute report released in February found: “With respect to homeownership, unemployment, and incarceration, America has failed to deliver any progress for African Americans over the last five decades. In these areas, their situation has either failed to improve relative to whites or has worsened. In 2017 the black unemployment rate was 7.5 percent, up from 6.7 percent in 1968, and is still roughly twice the white unemployment rate. In 2015, the black homeownership rate was just over 40 percent, virtually unchanged since 1968, and trailing a full 30 points behind the white homeownership rate, which saw modest gains over the same period. And the share of African Americans in prison or jail almost tripled between 1968 and 2016 and is currently more than six times the white incarceration rate.” Another report from the EPI showed the wage gap between blacks and whites is the worst it has been in nearly four decades.
The Washington Post
April 5, 2018
“The NY Fed should go back to the drawing board and draw from the deep, diverse, and highly qualified list of candidates provided to it by the Fed Up coalition (as well as surveying the views of other public interest groups),” the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens said in a recent statement. “This is too important a decision to make on institutional autopilot.”
CNBC
April 5, 2018