MINIMUM WAGE HIKES: The minimum wage increased in 18 states and localities on July 1, according to a handy compilation by the conservative Employment Policies Institute (not to be confused with the liberal Economic Policy Institute). Maryland saw the minimum wage rise to $10.10, up from $9.25; Oregon to $10.75, up from $10.25; and Washington, D.C., to $13.25, up from $12.50. Other notable increases included San Francisco (to $15 from $14); Los Angeles (to $13.25 from $12); Chicago (to $12 from $11); and Minneapolis (to $11.25 from $10). Read the full list here.
Politico
July 3, 2018
Other researchers have also found that app-based drivers make low wages. A study earlier this year by the liberal Economic Policy Institute, relying on data released by Uber, showed that the company’s drivers make about $11.77 per hour on average nationally, after deducting Uber’s share and vehicle expenses.
The New York Times
July 3, 2018
“Employers feel safer if the intern receives course credit—even though it’s the student, rather than the employer, who pays for those credits,” said Ross Eisenbrey, distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.
The Wall Street Journal
July 3, 2018
El desempleo de los latinos ha ido cayendo tras la Gran Recesión y la tasa de desocupación entre hombres de esta comunidad y los blancos se ha ido acercando. Las mujeres aun sufren una tasa más elevada que el resto de las mujeres (5.7% frente al 4.3%) pero si hay algo que no ha cambiado casi nada en las últimas décadas es el rendimiento de ese trabajo: el cheque. En materia salarial hay un techo de cristal. La brecha entre lo que cobran los latinos frente a los blancos se ha mantenido durante décadas. (whole story)
El Dario
July 3, 2018
A genuinely progressive trade policy — one that preserves peace and reciprocity and mutual benefit, while also insuring justice for the poor and working classes — would require deep and radical changes. Josh Bivens, a progressive economist at the Economic Policy Institute, has written on how this could work. We can also look further back to John Maynard Keynesfor examples of a totally different, and more economically just, approach to international trade. But long story short, these would be deep and radical changes. And getting from here to there may well require stepping back, at least temporarily, from big multilateral trade arrangements.
The Week
July 3, 2018
Celine McNicholas, director of labor law and policy for the Economic Policy Institute, said workers will struggle to have a voice with the Supreme Court’s decision. She noted that the right to unionize and collectively bargain will continue to be covered heavily as workers try to shift the balance of power. “As was seen in the reaction to the teachers’ strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and beyond, when issues of economic justice and workers’ rights are put front and center, the interests of the wealthy few rarely prevail,” she said.
Law 360
July 3, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank producing research on worker rights, wages and employment, has relied on the four biggest public-sector unions for about 10 to 15 percent of its roughly $6 million in annual revenue in recent years. “We aren’t seeing it as an existential threat,” said Thea Lee, the institute’s president, “but we have been trying to be conservative in what projects we pursue.”
The New York Times
July 2, 2018
Black women make up the highest share of public sector workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, and close to one in five black adults work in some type of government job. Derrick Johnson, the president and CEO of the NAACP, warns this decision could impact black public sector workers disproportionately. In a statement, he said, “protecting the fundamental rights of all citizens is extremely important. Civil Rights and Workers Rights are inextricably linked. Today’s decision could dismantle unions as we know them, which has paved the way for African Americans and other marginalized groups to break economic barriers, reach into the middle class, and establish financial security for their family.”
Marketplace
July 2, 2018
It’s likely that this outcome is exactly what those bankrolling Janus wanted. Plaintiff Mark Janus was represented by the Liberty Justice Center; The New York Times reported in February that the organization’s key financial supporter was Republican mega-donor Richard Uihlein. Meanwhile, the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute published a paper in February linking a string of court cases challenging unions to a hub of wealthy conservative donors, including Uihlein and the Koch brothers.
Time
July 2, 2018
Obviously, if unions were erased from America, the income of unionized workers would fall. But according to research from left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI), declines in unionization are linked to a drop in the pay of nonunion workers, too. And the implications of organized labor’s total collapse go way beyond paychecks. Without unions, racism and tribalism might get worse, cities could look physically different, rent would likely be even harder to keep up with, and weekends might become a thing of the past. More than anything else, what emerged from conversations with economists, labor experts, sociologists and futurists is that a society without unions would look a lot like the increasingly gilded-age reality we live in now—just worse. And it’s not nearly as implausible as you might think. “We don’t have to sort of wonder and fictionalize it,” Celine McNicholas, director of labor law and policy at EPI, told me. “History gives us an indication—before we had meaningful labor representation and unions—of what our economy looked like.” (Celine quoted throughout)
Vice News
June 29, 2018
