Media clips
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A new report finds that Michigan employers steal as much as $429 million from the state’s low-wage workers. The report, released Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C., is one of the first attempts to quantify just how much money employers in the 10 largest states steal from their employees. But is it “stealing”? Is that too strong a word? (whole story)
The Detroit Metro Times May 13, 2017 -
Elise Gould and Teresa Kroeger of the Economic Policy Institute recently completed a study of the job market that awaits students who graduate high school and college in 2017, and the news is notably better than it was for last year’s class. “After years of elevated unemployment and depressed wages, young graduates’ economic prospects have finally begun to brighten,” the report states. (EPI study cited throughout + Elise quoted)
Sinclair Broadcast Group May 12, 2017 -
Chelsea Clinton: Many workers—some 17 percent according to a 2015 Economic Policy Institute study—suffer from “on call” scheduling, which means that they can be asked by employers to add shifts on short notice, and similarly, may have them switched or cancelled just as quickly. Needless to say, this makes planning child care or time with children difficult, and stressful. While some cities, like San Francisco, have put in place policies that help workers gain greater control over their schedules, we need to advocate for fairer, more predictable workplace practices that will help parents succeed both on the job and at home.
Romper May 12, 2017 -
Wage Theft Is Costing Workers $50 Billion a Year in Stolen Pay
In These Times/Eli Horowitz
Wage theft—any refusal to pay wages, benefits, tips or overtime—is epidemic in New York and the United States. Approximately $50 billion in wages are stolen every year from workers nationwide, according to a 2014 Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report. In 2012, federal and state departments of labor and lawyers recovered at least $933 million in wages, which is less than 2 percent of the amount estimated stolen. According to EPI researchers and community organizers, when workers report wage theft to government agencies and lawyers, cases are routinely dismissed or settled for unsatisfactory amounts. Additionally, many victims are afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs, revealing their status as undocumented or because they can’t afford legal costs and time. Even when victims do win judgments in court, owners often claim they lack the assets to pay. Because wage theft lawsuits are typically civil cases, guilty bosses rarely face the threat of jail time.
In These Times May 12, 2017 -
Labor unions and worker advocates have embraced the new standard, saying it gives workers a real voice at the bargaining table by allowing them to negotiate with the employers who actually set the terms of their employment. Celine McNicholas, a former Obama administration NLRB official, told Bloomberg BNA that’s especially important in situations in which businesses use complicated legal arrangements to veil the power they wield over workplace policies. “When I look at this incredible amount of political capital that is being spent on this fight, what I see is an attack on workers’ ability to unionize,” McNicholas, now labor counsel for the union-backed Economic Policy Institute, said. “If you want to meaningfully bargain, you need to have everybody at the table on the employer side, otherwise you’re never going to be able to actually impact the terms and conditions of employment.” … EPI’s McNicholas said employees deserve some clarity too. She said she’d like to see a variety of labor and employment laws updated to ensure that workers have a meaningful right to negotiate and take legal action when necessary. “If you could have standards under all of these laws that actually were meaningful for workers to exercise their rights, that would be wonderful,” she said.
Bloomberg BNA May 12, 2017 -
A 2017 review from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute came to a similar conclusion. Martin Carnoy of Stanford University writes, “extensive research on educational vouchers in the United States over the past 25 years shows that gains in student achievement are at best small.”
NPR May 12, 2017 -
Women tend to earn more than men when first out of college. But once they have kids, the typical mom earns less than similarly educated men and other women who don’t have kids, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Moms are also relegated to handling a disproportionate share of the household chores, which eats into the time they can spend at work and puts them at a disadvantage in high-wage, high-pressure jobs that demand long work weeks, the EPI study says.
CBS Moneywatch May 12, 2017 -
In Ohio, 5.5 percent of workers experienced this type of “wage theft,” according to the analysis released Wednesday by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Ohio’s current minimum wage is $8.15 an hour. In the 10 most-populous states that were the subject of EPI’s report, employers failed to pay the minimum wage to an average of 4.1 percent of workers. Florida ranked first with 7.3 percent and New York came in third at 5 percent. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that on the pay stub it says you’re only getting $4 an hour,” said David Cooper, the senior economic analyst, who co-authored the report with research assistant Teresa Kroeger.
The Plain Dealer May 11, 2017 -
In many low-wage industries, it’s all too easy for employers to short workers on the wages they’re owed — either because it’s done in a way that employees don’t notice, or they need the job too much to protest. How much this costs workers is difficult to pinpoint. But by one estimation, they lose out by more than workers in any of the 10 largest states, according to a new report from the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. To put numbers on the phenomenon of “wage theft” — a broad term for practices such as not paying proper overtime, requiring work off the clock, denying legally required meal breaks, and misclassifying workers as independent contractors — the left-leaning think tank looked at data from a monthly Census Bureau survey that asks people how much houstomoney they make. (whole story)
Houston Chronicle May 11, 2017 -
New Study Warns of Wage Theft in US
Voice of America/Jim Randle
The Economic Policy Institute says the wage theft hits nearly one-fifth of low wage workers in the 10 largest U.S. states. The study’s authors say affected workers lose an average of $64 a week, or $3,300 a year out of their modest salaries. Young people, women, minorities and immigrants are often stuck in low-level jobs and thus are most likely to be affected by wage theft. EPI says the shortfall obviously hurts workers, but also slows demand for goods and services, which can crimp economic growth.
Voice of America May 11, 2017