According to an investigation of the 10 most populous states by the Economic Policy Institute, 2.4 million workers lose $8 billion annually (approximately $3,300 per year for year-round workers) to minimum-wage violations.
Dallas Observer
January 23, 2018
One complaint critics have against the program is that foreign employees allegedly work for less pay, pulling down American wages. That may be true in some instances—the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, says it has anecdotal evidence of this—but when they apply for the visas, employers agree to pay foreign employees the same wage as other workers with similar qualifications or the prevailing wage for the occupation, whichever is higher.
The Wall Street Journal
January 22, 2018
The Trump Labor Department has proposed a rule that would allow restaurants to share waiters’ tips with employees such as cooks and dishwashers. But nothing in the proposed rule would prevent restaurants from keeping the tips themselves, Shierholz says. An Obama-era rule had clarified that waiters can keep their tips. “In each of these cases, it’s about wresting leverage from workers and transferring it to employers,” says Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
USA Today
January 22, 2018
“During the EFCA fight, I think there was a lot more energy on the business side, it felt like there were more people being brought in to canvass against it than there was union rank-and-file being brought to pressure Congress,” reflected Lawrence Mishel, who led the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor think tank in D.C., for decades until his retirement in December. (Larry quoted throughout)
The Intercept
January 22, 2018
Labor unions and their supporters have argued that the decline has hurt workers. Unions are often seen as being critical to advancing workplace rights and protections on behalf of workers. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found in a 2016 report that the decline has even resulted in lower wages for nonunion workers.
Inside Sources
January 22, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, tracked the rate of union membership versus the share of income going to the top 10 percent of workers over the past 100 years. The trends are essentially mirror images of each other: When union membership rose, the richest households saw their share of national income decline. But in the era of falling union membership, the richest have captured an ever-larger slice of the income pie. (Includes union membership v top 10 income chart)
The Washington Post
January 22, 2018
Janelle Jones, an analyst with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, agrees. “These are the results of good previous policy that lead to economic growth,” she told Vox. “The recovery of employment was happening long before Trump got into office.” Still, while black unemployment has certainly fallen, at 6.8 percent, the unemployment rate for black Americans remains higher than that of both the overall population and other racial groups, and is almost double that of whites. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures that Trump cites, overall unemployment is 4.1 percent, while the unemployment rate for whites is 3.7 percent and Hispanics 4.9 percent. (Janelle quoted throughout)
VOX
January 19, 2018
Analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, suggests that women and hispanic workers have the most to lose from the DOL’s tip-pooling rule. The EPI estimates tipped workers would lose $5.8 billion in tips to employers if the rule passes, and nearly 80% of that loss would fall on female staff. (Replica race/ethnicity chart too)
Quartz
January 19, 2018
If you work in the service industry and think you’re going to get all your tip money, think again — especially if you’re a woman. A new report by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, found that a potential new Trump administration rule that’s being called “tip stealing” could hurt women more than anyone else. “Because women are both more likely to be tipped workers and to earn lower wages, this rule would disproportionately harm them,” the Economic Policy Institute states. (EPI cited throughout)
Bustle
January 19, 2018
Analysts at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) say this proposed rule shifts ownership of tips from employees to employers, without any restrictions on what they can do with the money. “The proposed rule does not require employers to distribute the tips,” EPI reports, “so employers would be no more likely to share tips with back-of-the-house workers than they would to make any other choice about what to do with a business windfall.”
The Post and Courier
January 19, 2018