New Jersey is one of the most expensive states in America, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But you may be able to find a place to live in New Jersey that won’t break your budget.
The organization recently released its 2018 family budget calculator that estimates how costly it is to live in each of America’s 3,142 counties and 611 metro areas. We have rankings of New Jersey places, county-by-county, based on affordability (see below). (whole story)
Toms River Patch
March 23, 2018
Worcester County is one of the cheaper places to live in Massachusetts according to the Economic Policy Institute. The organization recently released its 2018 family budget calculator that estimates how costly it is to live in each of America’s 3,142 counties and 611 metro areas.
The group estimates a family of two adults and two children in Worcester County would need to earn a combined $96,720 per year — or $8,060 a month — to “attain a modest yet adequate standard of living,” the organization said. (whole story)
Milford Patch
March 23, 2018
Myriad studies have demonstrated the extent of the wage theft, like a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute which found that 2.4 million workers lose $8 billion annually in the ten most populous states because of minimum wage violations alone, without accounting for overtime or other laws. This doesn’t happen because of honest employers who make a calculation error or can’t make payroll for one pay period.
The Hill
March 23, 2018
Deeply disturbing is the reality that, in 2018, Black people still suffer the brunt of systemic racism and inequality. Comparing the Kerner Commission report to today’s reality, it is shocking how far we haven’t come. In a must-read follow-up briefing by the Economic Policy Institute, titled “50 years after the Kerner Commission,” researchers Valerie Wilson, Janelle Jones (who appeared on WURD to discuss it), and John Schmitt observed that: (lists key findings)
WHYY
March 23, 2018
Companies and advocates are watching the case closely, particularly given the new significance amid the #MeToo movement, where women are coming together to speak out against sexual harassment in the workplace. More than half of private-sector employers have mandatory arbitration procedures, and 30 percent of these include class action waivers, the Economic Policy Institute reported in a study last year.
The National Law Journal
March 23, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, estimates that the rule would likely transfer about $5.8 billion in tips each year from workers to their bosses — about 16.1 percent of all their tips. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta reportedly tried to hide an internal analysis showing that the rule could take $640 million from workers (an initial analysis showed it would actually take billions of dollars), according to a Bloomberg investigation. Now the agency’s inspector general is investigating the allegations.
VOX
March 22, 2018
As the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute has noted, “the rule doesn’t actually require that employers distribute ‘pooled’ tips to workers. Under the administration’s proposed rule, as long as tipped workers earn minimum wage, employers could legally pocket those tips.” Why not just tweak the language? Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta claims his department doesn’t have the legal authority to ban tip theft; Congress would have to do it. It’s hard to say precisely how much pay America’s servers could see siphoned off if Trump’s regulation takes effect, in part because there’s a lack of good data about tip theft in general. But it’s possible to make an reasonable estimate. The Economic Policy Institute, for instance, thinks that restaurant workers could lose $5.8 billion annually in the bargain. The Department of Labor, on the other hand, has been officially silent on this point. Despite the fact that federal law requires government agencies to perform a cost-benefit analysis for new regulations, the proposal that department put out in December did not contain any estimate of the economic toll the regulation change might take on workers. The administration claimed that it couldn’t produce such an analysis, because it was too hard to predict how restaurants, their employees, and customers would react to the change.
Slate
March 22, 2018
‘According to an analysis published by the Economic Policy Institite (EPI) in January, even the internal analysis that the Department of Labor successfully repressed downplayed how much the tip-stealing rule would harm workers. While the Labor Department ultimately concluded that the rule could cost workers $640 million per year in earned tips, EPI found that the actual number would be somewhere around $5.8 billion—with $4.6 billion of that coming from the pockets of women. In a statement on Wednesday, Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at EPI, argued that Acosta should withdraw the rule and “focus on things that promote the Labor Department’s mission of serving working people, not undermining their earnings.” (includes Josh’s tweets)
Common Dreams
March 22, 2018
Previously, the DOL found that the total amount that workers could lose out on was actually in the billions, but sources told Bloomberg Law in February that senior department officials “ordered staff to revise the data methodology to lessen the expected impact.” The left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute has estimated that workers would lose $5.8 billion—$4.6 billion of which would come from women working in tipped jobs—if the new rule was implemented.
Splinter News
March 22, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimated that if the Labor Department’s proposal to allow tip pooling was enacted, tipped workers would lose between $563 million and $14.2 billion in annual tips. EPI’s best estimate indicated an annual loss of $5.8 billion in income.
24/7 Wall St.
March 22, 2018