The Economic Policy Institute said this year a survey of non-union private sector employers show that mandatory arbitration clauses have doubled since 2000. The institute said that 56 percent of non-union workers in the private sector, or 60 million people, are covered by such agreements.
The Quad-City Times
December 7, 2017
The Republican tax reform efforts may worsen inequality and lead to more missed opportunities for children who lack the advantages of wealth and privilege, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. Because the tax bill is regressive — meaning poorer families will bear more of the burden than wealthier ones — it will put disadvantaged households at greater risk of financial insecurity, she said. “The payment for it will come down the pike and [lawmakers] will likely reduce social safety nets” such as food stamps and other anti-poverty programs, Gould said. “If you reduce those programs, that will reduce their economic future.”
CBS Moneywatch
December 7, 2017
But the proposed rule as published does not explicitly require that the tips stay among the workers. Heidi Shierholz, the Labor Department’s former top economist under Obama, said she expects that at least some restaurant owners would appropriate the tips for themselves if the letter of the law allows it. “Under the administration’s proposed rule, as long as the tipped workers earn minimum wage, the employer can legally pocket those tips,” Shierholz, now a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a blog post.
The Huffington Post
December 6, 2017
The organization pointed to a line in the Labor Department document, which specifically says that managers could use pooled tip money to make structural improvements, like expanding the dining area, or to lower menu prices. “Crucially, the rule doesn’t actually require that employers distribute pooled tips to workers,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, in a statement. Democrats have also come out in opposition to the rule change.
CNN Money
December 6, 2017
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy institute (EPI), points to research that shows illegal wage theft exceeds $15 billion every year. “It seems obvious that when employers can legally pocket the tips earned by their employees, many will do so,” she said. … In fact, Shierholz and her team at EPI are currently working on a way to quantify the economic disadvantages the said rule would have on employees. By using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ current population survey and IRS data, the EPI is deriving a way to examine how much money would be transferred from employees to their bosses. With the caveat that both sources tend to underreport tips, Shierholz asserts that the DOL has a legal obligation to do a thorough analysis. “Make no mistake: as a result of this rule, workers will take home less, and their loss will be employers’ gain,” she said. “And Trump’s DOL is willing to break the requirements of the rulemaking process to attempt to hide that fact.”
Yahoo Finance
December 6, 2017
This would mean that “restaurants would be able to pool the tips servers receive and share them with untipped employees such as cooks and dishwashers,” according to the Economic Policy Institute. The proposed rule wouldn’t even require employers to share those tips with their employees. “Under the administration’s proposed rule, as long as the tipped workers earn minimum wage, the employer can legally pocket those tips,” according to the EPI. Employers do take tip earnings from employees already, as “recent research suggests that the total wages stolen from workers due to minimum wage violations exceeds $15 billion each year, and workers in restaurants and bars are much more likely to suffer minimum wage violations than workers in other industries,” according to the EPI.
Salon
December 6, 2017
The American Prospect
December 6, 2017
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, said the rule leaves room for employers to keep the tips for themselves, as long as the tipped employees earn a base minimum wage. “This would be a big transfer of money from workers to employers,” said Shierholz, who previously worked for Obama’s Labor Department. “The restaurant industry has wanted this forever. They want to be able to capture tips.”
The Washington Post
December 5, 2017
What’s worse, the proposed change might not even end up benefitting non-tipped workers. As the Economic Policy Institute’s Heidi Shierholz pointed out (emphasis hers): Crucially, the rule doesn’t actually require that employers distribute pooled tips to workers. Under the administration’s proposed rule, as long as the tipped workers earn minimum wage, the employer can legally pocket those tips.
Splinter News
December 5, 2017
Heidi Sheirholz, a former Labor Department economist now with the liberal Economic Policy Institute, argued this change would theoretically allow employers to claim all workers’ tips for themselves. “Crucially, the rule doesn’t actually require that employers distribute pooled tips to workers,” Sheirholz wrote.
The Washington Examiner
December 5, 2017