The stakes are high. More than 55 percent of nonunion private sector employees in the U.S. have arbitration agreements in their workplaces, according to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, and many employers have added class action waivers to those agreements.
Bloomberg BNA
October 3, 2017
In the early 1990s, less than 4 percent of companies surveyed by the Government Accountability Office, an independent government agency, used mandatory arbitration for their employees. Today, more than half of private-sector non-union workers are subject to it, according to a report published last week by the liberal Economic Policy Institute. Forty-one percent of those employees—24.7 million workers—have also waived their right to class-action litigation. Alexander Colvin, an expert on arbitration at Cornell University and the author of the report, expects more companies to add these waivers if the Supreme Court declares them legally enforceable. Companies have a significant incentive to do so. In 2015, Colvin found that employees win 21 percent of arbitration cases, compared to 57 percent of cases in state court. (Employees are far less likely to pursue grievances when they’re subject to arbitration: Colvin estimates that workers are 50 times likelier to sue than to arbitrate.) Workers also get less money when they’re successful: $109,000 in arbitration compared to $575,000 in state court. Colvin says lawyers he speaks with are less likely to represent workers bound by arbitration because they take a share of the damages.
Mother Jones
October 3, 2017
Nationwide, mandatory arbitration clauses keep about 56% of non-union employees—roughly 60.1 million American workers—out of court, according to a report issued by the Economic Policy Institute last week.
Money
October 3, 2017
As lawyers prepared to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court today over the legality of mandatory arbitration clauses in employment contracts, a new study came out that underscores what’s at stake, estimating that more than 60 million workers are now covered by them. The Economic Policy Institute, which says its mission is “to inform and empower individuals to seek solutions that ensure broadly shared prosperity and opportunity” carefully timed the release of results to come as before a widely-watched case reaches the high court. he case is actually three cases involving different employers: Epic Systems Corp., a Wisconsin-based maker of software for health care systems and medical groups, Ernst &Young U.S. and Arkansas-based Murphy Oil Co. All invoked arbitration clauses in disputes with individual workers over overtime and other issues. The Supreme Court like will take months to decide the issue. And employers will be watching carefully. To gauge the potential impact of that ruling, the Economic Policy Institute surveyed 627 private employers with 50 workers or more nationwide, focusing questions on their nonunion workers. Author of the study was Alexander J.S. Colvin., a professor at Cornell University’s ILR School.
Human Resources Executive
October 3, 2017
“This is not normal, even in a change of administration,” says Celine McNicholas, a labor attorney at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, and a former counsel at the NLRB. Politics always affect agencies’ agendas, she says, but for the solicitor general to change his office’s stance before the Supreme Court for what appear to be political reasons “is a significant shift.”
Mother Jones
October 2, 2017
While most Americans are unprepared for retirement, rich older people are doing better than ever. Among people older than 65, the wealthiest 20 percent own virtually all of the nation’s $25 trillion in retirement accounts, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post
October 2, 2017
A new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute looks at academic achievement for the top and bottom 20 percent of Americans in terms of income and education. On the upside, lower-income parents in 2010 reported having more books at home, reading to their children more and having higher expectations for their education. On the negative side, there has been no change in the class-based achievement gap for kindergartners between 1998 and 2010.
NPR
October 2, 2017
Social and economic inequality can make it even more difficult to make an impact as a teacher. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute finds kids from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds are already behind when they enter school, making it harder for them to catch up and reflecting poorly on educators.
Cheat Sheet
October 2, 2017
California Helps Workers Sue Their Bosses. New York Has Noticed
Bloomberg/Josh Eidelson
More than half of non-union private-sector employers now make their workers sign mandatory arbitration agreements, and 30 percent of those include class-action waivers, the Economic Policy Institute said this week. The left-of-center think-tank carried out a review of arbitrators’ disclosures in 2015, and found that corporations engaging in the practice included industry leaders like Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, J.C. Penney Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.
Bloomberg
October 2, 2017
About one in four private-sector non-union employees — nearly 25 million workers — have signed arbitration agreements with class-action waivers, according to a study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute think tank.
Reuters
October 2, 2017