Research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) indicates that women working in unions are paid 94 cents, on average, for every dollar paid to unionized working men. Researchers Elise Gould and Celine McNicholas also found that “hourly wages for women represented by unions are 23% higher than for non-unionized women.”
Refinery29
April 11, 2017
The liberal Economic Policy Institute looked at the city’s minimum wage bill last year and concluded that it would likely raise wages for 98,000 workers — about 27 percent of all Baltimore workers, and two-thirds of Baltimore workers who live in poverty. About half of those 98,000 workers live in households making less than $50,000 a year. By 2020, the average worker who got a raise due to the increase would have been earning about $4,400 more each year than today. (The analysis was conducted on a slightly different version of the recent bill.) That’s assuming that none of the negative consequences businesses warned about came true: The study did not take into account the impact of potential job losses or reduced work hours that could result from the new law.
VOX
April 11, 2017
Will labor groups totally rethink their approach or simply double down in the Age of Trump? I talked to former Labor Department economist Heidi Shierholz about that a few weeks ago. Shierholz, who’s now over at the Economic Policy Institute, said unions and other worker advocates might want to take a page from the environmental movement to get the word out about the danger she says GOP government control poses to workers. “A lot of the pushback is coming from the environmental organizations,” Shierholz said. “They’re doing a fantastic job, but the labor and employment side isn’t getting enough attention.”
Bloomberg BNA
April 10, 2017
Unfortunately, however, some students will start out earning much less than an average graduate in his or her field. A 2016 report from the Economic Policy Institute found that one in eight young college graduates was underemployed. While being underemployed is undoubtedly a frustrating experience for young graduates, there is no need to see it as being devastating toward one’s long-term financial situation.
The Wall Street Journal
April 9, 2017
Daniel Costa, director of Immigration Law and Policy Research for the Economic Policy Institute, said he is skeptical Trump will take any action regarding low-wage worker visas, and might even de-regulate them. The administration seems more focused on the high-skilled H1B visas that bring foreign technology workers into the U.S., he said.
The Washington Post
April 8, 2017
It’s also a luxury for many workers. In 2017, employees may be less concerned about job-sharing and more concerned about being forced to go part-time. Companies still show reluctance to hire more full-time employees post-recession. Roughly 6.4 million workers in the U.S. who work part-time say they are doing so involuntarily, a December 2016 report by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think-tank, found. That’s up 45% since 2007, the year before the financial crash.
Market Watch
April 8, 2017
Aside from returning ultra-low rates to a more normal level, the Fed wants to ensure that inflation does not accelerate to an unacceptable pace amid higher economic growth. After lagging for years, it now is around 2.0 percent, where the Fed likes to see it. “Remember that the economy sat at roughly 4.0 percent for two solid years in 1999 and 2000, without sparking inflationary pressure,” the liberal Economic Policy Institute said in a statement, referring to the unemployment rate then..
CBS Moneywatch
April 7, 2017
“Of course, while policy makers will be quick to take credit or cast blame for any changes in employment, it is important to remember most month-to-month changes are simply the continuation [of] broader trends already under way before the current administration took the wheel.” —Elise Gould, Economic Policy Institute
The Wall Street Journal
April 7, 2017
But if they do, they’ve taken a slow walk on that front. As Robert Scott of the left-wing Economic Policy Institute pointed out to me, Trump has yet to declare China a currency manipulator, impose any big tariffs, or enumerate any details about how he’d go about doing that. He hasn’t even filled many vital positions that would deal with the nuts and bolts of trade policy. He hasn’t started his promised overhaul of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), added Baker. And his bid at insuring the Keystone pipeline would be built with American steel petered out as it was basically unenforceable.
Vice News
April 7, 2017
There were some 5.6 million involuntary part-time workers in March 2017, little changed from the month before, but down from 6.4 million a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number is up from 4.5 million in November 2007, but way off a peak of 8.6 million in September 2012. These figures are almost entirely due to the inability of workers to find full-time jobs, leaving many workers to take or keep lower-paying jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think-tank in Washington, D.C. And 54% of the growth in these involuntary part-time jobs between 2007 and 2015 were in retail, leisure and hospitality industries, the EPI said.
Market Watch
April 7, 2017