The Guardian
February 6, 2018
“People have a lot of feelings about this,” says Heidi Shierholz, who served as chief economist for the Labor Department under former President Obama. “When the administration is trying to make it so employers can take tips, there’s a lot of tipped workers out there. And people are really not happy about this.” Shierholz suggests the proposal is driven by the restaurant industry, which has long wanted more control over workers’ tips. (Heidi quoted throughout)
NPR
February 6, 2018
Heidi Shierholz, who was chief economist at the agency under Obama, was so troubled by the lack of estimates on how the proposed rule would affect workers’ wages that she did the calculations herself. Shierholz and her team at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, looked at IRS filings, accounted for state laws and concluded the proposal could cost workers’ up to $5.8 billion each year. “Restaurants have wanted to get their hands on this revenue forever,” she said. “It would literally mean billions out of the pockets of workers.”
The Washington Post
February 6, 2018
Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute who also served as a chief economist at the Labor Department during President Barack Obama’s tenure, described the revelations during a conference call last week as “an outrageous process violation.” The Economic Policy Institute on Monday announced Shierholz had submitted to the Labor Department her own analysis that showed changing the tip rule would cut off tipped employees from $5.8 billion in earnings each year. She described that finding as conservative and indicated she believes Department of Labor officials came to a similar conclusion in their own unpublished analysis.
U.S. News and World Report
February 6, 2018
Según un análisis del Instituto de Política Económica (EPI, por su sigla en inglés), el cambio permitiría que las empresas se embolsen anualmente hasta $5,800 millones por las propinas que obtienen sus empleados, de los cuales el 80% proviene de mujeres. (Tweet with graphic included)
La Opinion
February 6, 2018
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented think tank based in Washington, the rule change could result in employers taking up to $5.8 billion of workers’ earned tips, Stein said – adding that more than 91,000 people in North Carolina work as waiters or bartenders.
The News & Observer
February 6, 2018
News broke this week that the Trump administration has been hiding evidence that’s of great importance to the public. No, we’re not talking about collusion with the Russians. We’re talking about the fact that we have now learned that the Trump administration lied to the public about evidence that a new policy the administration is pushing will cost low-wage and tipped workers billions of dollars in lost wages — which their employers will likely pocket. To get the scoop, Rebecca talks with Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Dept. of Labor under President Obama.
Off Kilter Podcast
February 6, 2018
A study by the Economic Policy Institute finds that counties home to an Amazon warehouse do not show broad-based employment gains in the two years after their opening. Amazon said the report undervalues its economic impact. (whole story)
The Seattle Times
February 6, 2018
It’s hard to predict whether the sweeteners will pay off, but if the past is any guide, cities should perhaps be wary. A new report looking at the employment outcomes of Amazon fulfillment centers finds little or no net improvement in jobs over time. While a new center does produce, on average, a 30% increase in storage and warehousing jobs within two years, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, there is little evidence of an overall uptick in employment. The researchers say the gains are either offset by losses in other industries or that they don’t register enough to make a dent in the data. “Our findings..suggest that some sort of employment displacement is taking place, or that the growth in warehousing jobs is too limited to spill over into broad-based employment gains for the overall local economy,” the report, by Janelle Jones and Ben Zipperer, says. (whole story)
Fast Company
February 6, 2018
Nationwide in 2017, nearly 860,000 workers under age 35 got hired, and nearly a quarter of those were union jobs. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, “Historically, younger workers have been less likely than older workers to be a member of union,” so in that sense there’s a lot of room to grow among younger workers, whose union membership lags behind other age groups. Millennials are responsible for a huge portion of the recent gains in union representation across the workforce, which has managed to remain fairly steady (yep, young people are keeping labor alive). Growing by some 198,000 workers, youth in union jobs are offsetting loss of union jobs in older age brackets; union jobs for workers age 45 to 54 dropped by some 75,000 over the same period.
The Nation
February 6, 2018