The practice of forcing employees to sign arbitration agreements is increasingly widespread. A study released Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that in 1992, approximately 2% of private sector, non-unionized employees in the United States had signed a forced arbitration agreement. Today, that percentage is 55%. As a result, the EPI estimates that over 60 million American workers are working under such agreements.
Medium
October 5, 2017
4) Provide universal public day care to all who want it, and build a national high-speed rail system.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a program guaranteeing every American child access to a high-quality day care or prekindergarten would cost roughly $90 billion in its first year of operation. Costs would go down once the new child-care infrastructure was put together, but let’s say it would cost $900 billion to maintain for a decade. According to the libertarian Cato Institute, building a national high-speed rail system would cost $500 billion.
New York Magazine
October 4, 2017
In an Economic Policy Institute report, Alexander J.S. Colvin explains that the share of employees subject to mandatory arbitration increased from just 2 percent in 1992 to more than a quarter of all workers by the early 2000s. Now, more than half of non-union private-sector employees are covered by such agreements. Of companies with more than 1,000 employees, 65 percent of workers are covered by mandatory arbitration. Of all private-sector arbitration clauses, 30 percent—covering about 25 million workers—explicitly state that employees must waive their right to join a class-action case.
The American Prospect
October 4, 2017
According to new data published last month by the Economic Policy Institute, 56.3 percent of non-union private-sector employees are currently subject to mandatory-arbitration agreements, and of those, 41.1 percent have also waived their right to a class-action claim. Put simply, an estimated 24.7 million American workers have been barred from bringing a class-action claim to defend their employment rights.
The Nation
October 4, 2017
The case, Epic Systems Corporation versus Lewis, involves arbitration agreements often found in the fine print of employee contracts. About one-quarter of private-sector employees, or nearly 25 million Americans, have signed agreements that waive their right to sue employers collectively, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Public News Service
October 4, 2017
The Supreme Court opened a new term Monday, hearing arguments in a case that could expand the rights of millions of workers to sue their employers. The case, NLRB v. Murphy Oil, pits workers who want the right to join class action lawsuits against employers—backed by the Trump administration—who want to force workers to enter into binding arbitration agreements that prohibit collective litigation. The Economic Policy Institute says more than half of all non-union U.S. workers are currently forced to work under mandatory arbitration rules.
Democracy Now!
October 4, 2017
THE RETORTS FROM THE LEFT: Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee say the panel’s Republicans shouldn’t consider a tax bill before a measure gets an official score, Pro Tax’s Aaron Lorenzo reports. “It would be an insult to our constituent families and companies to push forward a back-of-the-envelope tax reform bill based on partisan guesswork instead of economic analysis,” they wrote. Democrats on the House Budget Committee also released their alternative budget, as our Budget team reported. On the tax front, Democrats called for expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and the child tax credit, and for a tax reform that ensures that top earners and corporations are paying their “fair share.” Along those lines, the progressive Economic Policy Institute has a new primer on tax reform — and, surprise, it doesn’t think tax cuts are a great idea or that corporate tax rate cuts create jobs.
Politico
October 4, 2017
“If you are a black homeowner, you are more likely to have a lower value on your home because of neighborhood segregation,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity, and the economy. “Blacks couldn’t purchase in white communities where values were rising faster.”
The Washington Post
October 3, 2017
A study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute shows that 56 percent of nonunion private-sector employees are currently subject to mandatory individual arbitration procedures under the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act, which allows employers to bar collective legal actions by employees.
NPR
October 3, 2017
A win for employers would give the green-light to an already growing trend in which companies require workers to sign arbitration agreements waiving their right to bring class-action claims either in court or before private arbitrators. About 25 million workers are already bound by such agreements, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute think tank.
Reuters
October 3, 2017