Many nonprofit advocacy group leaders have also signed on to the initial list. Among the more prominent names are Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self Reliance; Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First; Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute; and Dean Baker, senior economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Nonprofit Quarterly
February 16, 2018
Arbitration can offer defendants procedural protections not available in court, and keep potentially unpleasant details out of the public eye because proceedings are private. Roughly 60.1 million U.S. workers are subject to arbitration agreements in their employment, according to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.
Reuters
February 16, 2018
Report: PA Teacher, Substitute Shortages Rising
The Sanatoga Post/Joe Zlomek
A report issued Thursday (Feb. 15, 2018) by the national Economic Policy Institute claims low pay is a likely factor in Pennsylvania’s “growing teacher shortage,” and suggests pension legislation that takes effect in 2019 could make staffing classrooms even more difficult in the future. Written by Jeffrey Keefe, professor emeritus at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, it indicates weekly compensation including wages and benefits for the state’s teachers is almost 7-percent lower than pay for comparable full-time employees in other professions. (whole story)
The Sanatoga Post
February 16, 2018
Low pay is a likely factor in Pennsylvania’s teacher shortage, according to a new report. The report, from the Economic Policy Institute, shows that weekly compensation, including wages and benefits, for teachers in the Keystone State are almost 7 percent lower than pay for comparable full time employees in other professions. According to Dolores McCracken, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, this may explain a dramatic drop in the number of students pursuing teaching degrees. “We’ve also seen a similar decline in the number of teaching certificates that are being issued by the Department of Education,” she says. “In fact, we’ve seen these numbers drop by 66 percent since 2014.” (whole story)
Public News Service
February 16, 2018
Black women are uniquely disadvantaged in the workforce despite the critical role they play in the economy, argued lawmakers and experts during a discussion Thursday. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive research nonprofit, hosted the discussion to examine the state of black women in the economy. Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison and Bonnie Watson Coleman talked before a panel of experts who detailed how black women contribute to the economy and the problems they still face. (whole story)
Inside Sources
February 16, 2018
Janelle speaks 5:26-8:19ish
NPR's Code Switch
February 15, 2018
The question of why american workers’ wages have stagnated for decades even as their productivity—how many goods or services they can produce or deliver—climbed higher has befuddled many an economist and policy-maker. According to the Economic Policy Institute, from 1973 to 2014 most workers barely saw any increase in pay, adjusted for inflation—about a 9 percent raise overall, or just 0.2 percent a year. Yet in that same period, productivity rose 72 percent, or 1.33 percent a year.
The Nation
February 15, 2018
This year, it’s even more clear that strong unions will rely on young workers. A new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that 76 percent of the nationwide increase in union membership in 2017 was made up of workers under 35.
AFSCME
February 15, 2018
Nor should there be any doubt why employers would engage in such strong-arm tactics. Data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reveal that employees are less likely to prevail over employers in arbitration than in a real court, and when employees do prevail in arbitration, they typically receive much less money. (table included)
Think Progress
February 14, 2018
About 55 percent of private sector employees are subject to mandatory arbitration, according to a study released last year by the progressive Economic Policy Institute. That translates to 60.1 million workers, according to the data. Companies also use arbitration clauses to prevent employees from joining together in class action suits. That means if a group of female employees were all harassed by the same man, they would each have to sue the company individually. That’s a huge disadvantage to such women, already far less empowered than the company they’re fighting.
The Huffington Post
February 14, 2018