From January through October for the 20 states that will raise their minimum wages one economist at the Economic Policy Institute said redistributing money for the lowest paid workers is smart policy because they are the workers who will spend it that will ultimately help the economy.
CNN International
January 4, 2021
When you look at numbers like the unemployment rate looking like it’s doing better at 6.7%, the truth is the Economic Policy Institute and others think the true number is closer to 11.2%.
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
January 4, 2021
An unprecedented level of online shopping means unprecedented levels of shipping so spare a thought for your friendly neighborhood postal worker who has had quite a year. Remember just a couple of months ago that the United States Postal Service, despite budget cuts and last minute dismantling of sorting machines, processed more than 65 million mail-in ballots for the election. The agency is now promising extraordinary measures for the Georgia Senate runoffs and according to the Economic Policy Institute the people carrying on all of that mail are more likely to be Black and veterans than those working in the private sector.
Marketplace
January 4, 2021
Nationally, the federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Atlanta Journal Constitution
January 4, 2021
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute called the 11-week extension of PUA and PEUC benefits in a recent news release “wholly insufficient and guarantees millions will exhaust benefits by the middle of March, when the virus will still be surging and job openings will still be scarce relative to the number of job seekers.”
Detroit Free Press
January 4, 2021
“The employment data is going in the right direction but the wage data is not,” Black said. “Three things must happen. Every employer in the region must commit to wage parity by race today. We’ve been studying it since the Economic Policy Institute first reported about it. We need employer commitment just as they’ve made progress related to gender. At senior levels.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
January 4, 2021
The number of long-term unemployed — those out of a job for at least 6 months — has been ticking up each month and now totals nearly 4 million. As of November, there are currently 16 unemployed people for every 10 available jobs, says Elise Gould, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
“It’s hard to think this will come to an end any time soon,” she adds.
Money
January 4, 2021
Economic Policy Institute estimates that undocumented immigrants contribute $11.7 billion each year in state and local taxes but this still does not qualify for federal rescue relief funds or state unemployment benefits.
KFOX-TV (El Paso)
January 4, 2021
“Stimulating the economy to create jobs is crucial,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, “both to the 26.1 million workers who are being directly harmed by the recession because they are either out of work or have had their hours and pay cut, and to the millions more who saw their bargaining power disappear as the recession took hold.”
These
26 million include the officially unemployed, those who dropped out of the work force, unemployed but
misclassified workers and the still-employed whose hours and wages have been cut. The higher the unemployment rate, the more workers will be forced to take whatever job is available, which erodes bargaining power, especially for lower paid jobs.
CNN Business
January 4, 2021
In a 2020 study by the Economic Policy Institute, the teacher wage penalty was shown to have grown from 6 percent in 1996 to 19.2 percent in 2019. The year before, the penalty had been even worse, at 22 percent.
“This is something where there’s been an attack on teachers,” said one author of the study, EPI fellow Lawrence Mishel, during the Policy Matters discussion. “We have not been putting in the resources, and this is something we really need to do to guarantee children have the professionals that they need.”
That lowering came from “widespread strikes and other actions by teachers in 2018 and 2019,” the study stated.
In Ohio, the wage penalty stands at 15.2 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Highland County Press
January 4, 2021
Because Social Security only taxes income up to an annual cap, which is $142,800 in 2021, when people who earn over that amount do better than everyone else more income escapes the Social Security tax as Christian Weller explains. The Economic Policy Institute calculates wages for the top 1% grew 158% since 1979, while wages for the bottom 90% of earners grew only 24%.
Forbes
January 4, 2021
July 2019 findings from the Economic Policy Institute showed more than 33 million American workers would benefit from a federal raise to a $15 minimum wage, including 116,000 workers in New Hampshire.
Seacoast Online
January 4, 2021
The largest share of essential workers is employed in health care and the food and agriculture sectors, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
El Paso Times
January 4, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, “the gender wage gap refers to historically persistent differences between what men and women are paid in the workplace.” In 2019, the average woman earned $0.85 for every dollar a man earned.
Yahoo Finance
January 4, 2021
“This bill is too long, too complicated,” said Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
…
“The most important thing that is not in the stimulus bill is aid to state and local governments,” said Lee. “If they don’t get enough aid from the federal government, they will have to start laying off workers.”
Scripps National News
January 4, 2021
According to research conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, Pennsylvania is one of the states with the most to gain from additional pandemic unemployment assistance. The study found that the programs could actually “create or save 5.1 million jobs” in 2021 by helping “workers and their families keep their heads above water while breathing necessary life into the economic recovery.” Using their model, Pennsylvania’s job share would increase by 5.7% — which equates to 265,000 jobs gained. With the CARES Act set to expire, Pennsylvanians using those programs to make ends meet — will have to look elsewhere.
WHYY
January 4, 2021
Meanwhile, the turnabout in views about a $15 wage base has been head-spinning. Even states with relatively low minimums, like Florida and Virginia, are poised for significant increases in 2021 and headed toward $15, or at least the strong possibility of it, by 2026.
By then, 42% of the U.S. workforce will be covered by $15 minimum wage laws, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
USA Today
January 4, 2021
A study by the Economic Policy Institute concludes that “although Americans are working more productively than ever, the fruits of their labors have primarily accrued to those at the top and corporate profits, especially in recent years. From 1979 to 2018, net productivity rose 69.6 percent, while the hourly pay of typical workers essentially stagnated—increasing only 11.6 percent over 39 years (after adjusting for inflation).”
Forbes
January 4, 2021
Two researchers with the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington D.C., come down on the side of the benefits of wage increases. They wrote that three academic studies published in 2020 did historical analyses of wage increases and concluded that they raised consumer spending in local markets. “Raising the minimum wage directly pushes back against the consumer demand shortfall by providing low-wage workers with money to boost the broader economy,” the Sept. 14 post stated.
Roswell Daily Record
January 4, 2021
A 2014 Economic Policy Institute analysis found that fewer people in the lower- and middle-classes were actually climbing the economic ladder today. In turn, they made less than their parents. As Intelligence Squared reported, “In the last 30 years, the wages of the top 1% have grown by 154%, while the bottom 90% has seen growth of only 17%.” What led to this phenomenon? Unequal income distribution, where those at the top receive much more than those on the bottom.
Entrepreneur
January 4, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 25.7 million workers in the US remain officially unemployed, otherwise out of work due to the pandemic, or have experienced a reduction in work hours or pay.
The Guardian
January 4, 2021
New Jersey is particularly pricey for child care. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual cost of infant care in the state is $12,988.
NJ.com
January 4, 2021
39. Black women, on average, earn 64 cents for every dollar a white man earns, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute.
New York Times
January 4, 2021
Heidi Shierholz, a scholar at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Labor Department under President Obama, told The Hill, “Reasonable time’ is not defined, and its ambiguity will make it difficult to enforce, providing employers an immense loophole and leaving workers behind.” She predicted the change could cost tipped workers a collective $700 million a year, and shift more jobs from non-tipped to tipped.
FSR Magazine
January 4, 2021
The disparities run even deeper: Research shows that Black workers’ benefits are less likely to include paid sick days and the ability to work from home, and according to data from the Economic Policy Institute, access to paid sick days is “vastly unequal.” And that’s just about sick days.
NBC News
January 4, 2021
People who live in states that did not expand Medicaid, including Florida, Georgia, and other southern states, are less likely to have affordable care, says Reinert. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the pandemic has widened this access gap: As many as 12 million Americans lost employer-sponsored health insurance between February and August.
National Geographic
January 4, 2021
12 million more Americans may have lost health insurance since February, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, and a poll done in October by CNN found that 61% of Americans say they don’t want the Supreme Court to overturn the ACA.
CNN International Amanpour
December 24, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute has estimated the rule would let employers take $700 million from tipped workers each year. That’s based on numbers before the industry suffered under the pandemic.
Scripps National News
December 24, 2020
And by increasing the share of nontipped work that can be done by tipped workers who are paid a lower base wage, the Trump administration’s new rule “will transfer large amounts of money from workers to their employers”—causing employees to lose more than $700 million annually, wrote Heidi Shierholz and David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank whose research foregrounds the interests of low-income workers.
Common Dreams
December 24, 2020