Media clips
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During the campaign President Trump cast himself as a champion of working-class Americans. But critics point out that in his first 100 days in office, Trump has rolled back worker protections and outlined a budget that would starve the agencies in charge of looking out for laborers. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C., last week released a report detailing Trump’s record on workers’ rights so far. Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson talks with Celine McNicholas (@CmMcNich), the institute’s labor counsel, about the report.Here & Now May 2, 2017 -
100 Days of Trump Impact on Workers – EPI Report
WORT-FM
Kayla Blado, Media Relations Specialist with the Economic Policy Institute. reviews the impact of actions by the Trump Administration in its first 100 days. The story was originally aired on WORT-FM’s Labor Radio, on Friday, April 28, 2017.WORT-FM May 1, 2017 -
Watchdogs: Trump’s Disastrous 100 Days Fueling “Golden Era of Activism”
Common Dreams/Nadia Prupis
Celine McNicholas for the Economic Policy Institute: “In his first 100 days in office, President Trump has continued to talk about creating ‘jobs where Americans prosper and grow.’ However, his actions during that time tell a different story.”
“Working Americans deserve more than talk,” McNicholas said Thursday. “If the president were serious about improving the lives of working men and women, he could strengthen overtime rules, work to increase the minimum wage, and support workers’ rights to bargain collectively. Instead he has steadily undermined the laws and institutions that protect working people and advance their interests.Common Dreams May 1, 2017 -
EPISODE 27: 100 DAYS OF CRAZINESS, BIGOTRY AND BAD STUFF
Working Life/Jonathan Tasini
I dig into the Top 10 really bad things that have happened so far in Donald Trump’s reign, focusing on workers, and the issues we care about in the political revolution. It’s all an easy-to-understand conversation with my expert guest, Heidi Shierholz, Senior Economist and Director of Policy at the Economic Policy Institute.Working Life April 27, 2017 -
By the time it would take full effect in 2024, the minimum wage proposal would raise the pay of 41.5 million workers, according to an analysis released by the progressive Economic Policy Institute timed to coincide with the Capitol Hill rally. The bill would ensure that in 2019 the minimum wage would exceed the inflation-adjusted peak it reached in 1968, EPI estimates. EPI is an influential think tank in Democratic circles. It did not endorse previous $15 minimum wage proposals in Congress, but it does back this one ― another sign that the more gradual escalation of the wage floor in this plan has broadened the tent of supporters on the left.
The Huffington Post April 27, 2017 -
Think tank Economic Policy Institute offered its breakdown of the benefits of Sanders and Murray’s bill. The EPI dubs itself nonpartisan, but it is affiliated with (and has received funding from) the labor movement. According to an EPI fact sheet, the bill is a response to ground-up advocacy taken on by cities and states in the wake of the fast-food workers strike in 2012. So far, California, New York and D.C. have approved raising their minimum wages to $15 an hour and Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona and Maine have approved minimums in the range of $12 to $14.75. Some of the cities on the front line of the fight (even before 2012) have included Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego. The EPI sees the bill as all sweetness and light, stating that it would “lift pay for 41 million workers — nearly 30 percent of the U.S. workforce,” “begin to reverse decades of growing pay inequality between the lowest-paid workers and the middle class,” and “generate $144 billion in higher wages for workers and would also benefit their communities.” It would also be a boon for women and people of color, in the EPI’s eyes.
Next City April 27, 2017 -
A minimum wage increase this high could help undo that trend. By 2019, according to a new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the legislation would bring the value of the minimum wage above where it was in 1968 for the first time in more than a half century. It would finally be enough, if someone were working full-time and supporting a family of four, to lift her out of poverty. “The lowest-paid workers in the U.S. economy earn less than what their counterparts did 50 years ago, which is just absolutely crazy and socially irresponsible,” said Ben Zipperer, an economist at EPI. “We’re really digging ourselves out of a hole.” It would also directly and indirectly lead to raises for millions of Americans. According to EPI’s analysis, 22.5 million people would get higher pay thanks to their employers being required to increase their wages within seven years, earning an average of $5,100 more a year for full-time work. Another 19 million people, meanwhile, would see their pay rise as employers hiked compensation for people making more than $15 an hour so as to retain and attract them. That amounts to a raise for more than a quarter of the entire wage-earning workforce.
Think Progress April 27, 2017 -
While the progressive Economic Policy Institute estimates the resulting U.S. trade deficit with Mexico had displaced more than 680,000 U.S. jobs by 2010 and has contributed to lower incomes among U.S. manufacturing workers, other economists counter it lowered the prices of goods and created jobs in different sectors.
Mic April 27, 2017 -
Researchers have found mixed effects on the US labour force. Some industries have shrunk, while others have grown. The Economic Policy Institute said in 2013 that some 700,000 jobs had been lost as production moved to Mexico – with California, Texas, and Michigan among the worst hit states.
Al Jazeera America April 27, 2017 -
Sanders and 21 Democrats introduce bill to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour
The Washington Post/David Weigel
Since then, Sanders has used his increased prominence on the left and around the Democratic Party to push for the higher wage. Wednesday’s legislation relies in part on the analysis of the progressive Economic Policy Institute, whose president, Larry Mishel, said in an interview that critics who warned that a higher wage would kill jobs were relying on outdated nostroms. “They don’t know that, and if they insist on it, this will be the first time those people ever care about low-wage workers,” said Mishel. “It’s always odd to find the employers of low-wage workers claim to be the heroes of young black teenagers, who on any other day of the week they do everything they can to ignore them.”
The Washington Post April 26, 2017