A similar report released Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that these mandatory arbitration clauses are not merely the province of large employers. Across the board, arbitration clauses keep about 56% of non-union employees out of court, or roughly 60.1 million American workers, according to the EPI study, authored by Cornell professor Alexander J.S. Colvin. (EPI cited throughout)
Money
September 29, 2017
More than 55 percent of nonunion private sector employees in the U.S. have arbitration agreements in their workplaces, a report from the Economic Policy Institute said Sept. 27. That percentage is almost double what it was when the information was last collected in the early 2000s, the report said. Celine McNicholas, EPI’s labor counsel, said the group expected an increase but “were surprised” that over half the workers in the study had arbitration agreements in their contracts. McNicholas was formerly the NLRB’s director of congressional and public affairs, and special counsel. The report also found that large employers “are more likely to have these arbitration agreements,” McNicholas told Bloomberg BNA. About 65 percent of companies with 1,000 or more employees have arbitration agreements, whereas about 56 percent of companies with fewer than 1,000 employees use the agreements, the report said. EPI’s report includes responses from 738 companies, collected between March and July 2017. (Celine quoted throughout)
Bloomberg BNA
September 29, 2017
More than half of private sector non-union workers – or 60 million people – are subject to mandatory arbitration in employment contracts, which takes away their access to the court system that protects their legal employment rights. That’s according to new paper from the Economic Policy Institute. The paper was written by Cornell Professor Alexander J.S. Colvin.
Mandatory arbitration agreements are used by employers to require employees, as a condition of employment, to agree to arbitrate legal disputes rather than being able to go to court. (whole story, Celine quoted)
Corporate Crime Reporter
September 29, 2017
A report released Wednesday shows that more than 60 million workers in the United States are subject to mandatory arbitration in employment contracts, highlighting the potential scope of a key U.S. Supreme Court case that confronts the legality of those agreements. The Economic Policy Institute’s study conducted for the progressive think tank by a Cornell University professor shows the number of companies that use mandatory arbitration clauses in employment contracts has grown significantly since the 1990s. (paywalled)
Inside Counsel
September 29, 2017
In the first three years after the court’s pro-arbitration ruling in AT&T Mobility (T) v. Concepcion in 2011, the number of companies using arbitration clauses to preclude employee class actions jumped from 16.1% to 42.7%, according to a survey by Carlton Fields Jorden Burt, a consulting firm that advises employers. A more recent survey, whose results were published just this week by the Economic Policy Institute, reports that 24.7 million private-sector, nonunion employees in the U.S. are now subject to class waivers contained in arbitration clauses.
Yahoo News
September 29, 2017
The median household headed by someone between the ages of 55 and 74 had less than $60,000 in financial assets in 2016, down from roughly $80,000 in 2007. Adding to the challenge, older Americans’ homes — the principal nonfinancial asset for many families — are still worth less than before the recession.
“This is not good news for retirement security,” said Monique Morrissey, an economist with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The New York Times
September 28, 2017
“White households had a head start in rebuilding wealth relative to black and Hispanic households,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy. “Black and Hispanic households see larger percentage gains simply because they were starting from a lower level.”
The Washington Post
September 28, 2017
Some 60 million American workers have lost their right to sue employers in court — and more than a third have also lost their right to collectively take legal action, according to a new study released Wednesday. The report only looked at private sector non-union employees, who are at the mercy of companies that can demand workers sign mandatory arbitration contracts as a condition of employment. In “The Growing Use of Arbitration,” author Alexander Colvin, a professor at the Industrial and Labor Relations School at Cornell University, found that the use of forced arbitration contracts jumped from 2% of the private-sector workforce in 1991 to more than 55% today. (whole story, Celine quoted throughout)
New York Daily News
September 28, 2017
The GOP Couldn’t Repeal Obamacare, but It Still Has a Chance to Gut a Major Consumer Protection This Week
Slate/Bryce Covert
It was once illegal, but Congress passed a law in 1925 clearing the way for the use of arbitration mainly in contractual disputes between businesses. In the 1980s, the Supreme Court expanded the scope of that law to apply to virtually any dispute. Today, according to a newly released report from the Economic Policy Institute, more than 55 percent of nonunion, private-sector employees are bound by arbitration clauses. About 16 percent of credit card agreements, 86 percent of private student loan contracts, and 87.5 percent of mobile wireless provider agreements include one. But most people, whether they’re shopping or onboarding at a new job, don’t even realize they’re signing them.
Slate
September 28, 2017
More employers making sure they don’t see you in court
CBS Moneywatch/Rachel Layne
Under mandatory arbitration, workers often agree to arbitration in lieu of court action as a condition of employment. That practice is growing faster than ever, a new paper from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found. This year, about 54 percent of non-unionized private-sector employers have such policies, That’s up from about 2 percent in 1992 and 14 percent in 2003, according to figures cited in the study, conducted by Alexander Colvin, a Cornell University professor specializing in labor relations, law and history. About 30 percent of these clauses also mandate arbitration for class actions, meaning employees can’t sue as a group, either, according to the study. (whole story, Celine quoted throughout)
CBS Moneywatch
September 28, 2017