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How great of an effect a tech company can have on a new town comes down to one thing: jobs. And not just how many jobs that company creates, but how many other businesses are prompted to hire from that town because that new tech company set up shop. For many heartland cities, the latest tech company coming to town is Amazon, thanks to its massive fulfillment center operation. But, a new study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute finds that Amazon fulfillment centers aren’t creating many new jobs. (whole story
Venture Beat February 2, 2018 -
A report released Thursday by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that Amazon fulfillment centers do not boost overall employment in the counties where they open.
Instead, the study of 95 Amazon fulfillment centers, spread over 25 states, determined that while there was an overall net 30 percent gain in warehouse jobs, there was a limited, if any, overall increase in the overall workforce. The report found that Amazon received more than $1 billion in state and local incentives toward those centers. In most instances, the incentives are performance based tax credits that may take years to receive. The authors said that the new Amazon jobs are offset by losses in other industries, or that the employment growth generated by Amazon is simply too small to be meaningfully detected in the data. The authors recommend that local and state officials dedicate potential incentive funds toward “public service, particularly in early-childhood education and infrastructure, that are proven to spur long-term economic development.”
Winston-Salem Journal February 2, 2018 -
Amazon jobs and cash incentives to bring those jobs to North Carolina may not be all they’re cracked up to be, according to a new report released today by the Economic Policy Institute. Amidst the hope and anxiety around Amazon’s HQ2 project, the new report helps bring some important perspective to the fevered speculation surrounding the technology giant’s impending decision of where to locate its second corporate headquarters. The company has promised to create 50,000 jobs and millions in private investment… in exchange for as much as a billion dollars in business incentives from prospective locations. North Carolina, of course, has made the short list. (whole story)
NC Policy Watch February 2, 2018 -
The department never offered any estimate to the public of the amount of tips that would be shifted from workers to employers. The work of analyzing costs and benefits to proposed rules is legally required for the rulemaking process, Economic Policy Institute noted. EPI did its own analysis and found that tipped workers would lose $5.8 billion a year in tips as a result of this rule. Women in tipped jobs would lose $4.6 billion annually. (EPI cited throughout)
Think Progress February 2, 2018 -
Labor Department accused of burying data
CBS Moneywatch/Kate Gibson
The agency offered the proposal without providing an estimate of how much would be shifted from workers to employers under the new rule. The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning research firm, projected that the rule would cost servers $5.8 billion a year. “There is no way to do a good face estimate and maintain the fiction that this rule isn’t terrible for workers,” said Heidi Shierholz, who previously served as chief economist for the Labor Department, in a conference call on Thursday arranged by EPI.
CBS News Moneywatch February 2, 2018 -
Bloomberg Law wasn’t able to obtain specific numbers in the analysis, but the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., estimates the amount to be “well into the billions,” Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the EPI, said in a press conference on Thursday. An EPI-conducted analysis shows that the DOL’s proposed rule change would allow employers to take $5.8 billion of tip income a year from their workers. The amount represents about 16 percent of the total tips earned a year by workers in the U.S., and 80 percent of the impact will be on women workers. Shierholz said the analysis used the same data as the DOL and a similar methodology. “This is an outrageous process violation, and completely overturns 40 years of consistent interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act,” Shierholz said. (Heidi quoted throughout)
New York Observer February 2, 2018 -
So just how much did the DOL find the rule would cost workers? It’s unclear. But the Economic Policy Institute came up with an estimate that found that the new tip pooling rule could prompt employers to pocket as much as $5.8 billion in tips earned by restaurant workers each year. “This shows the lengths to which the Trump administration and Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta will go to hide the fact that they are taking steps to actively make workers’ lives worse,” Heidi Shierholz, EPI’s senior economist and a former chief economist for Obama’s DOL, said in a statement.
The American Prospect February 2, 2018 -
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found in an analysis last month that employers could pocket $5.8 billion in gratuities earned by their employees each year as a result of the rule. In a statement Thursday, the EPI said the Bloomberg Law report shows the lengths to which the Trump administration and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta will go to hide the fact that they are taking steps to make workers’ lives worse. “DOL should release its analysis immediately or, better yet, withdraw its proposal and refocus on its mission of serving working people, not big business,” Heidi Shierholz, the EPI’s senior economist and director of policy, said.
The Hill February 2, 2018 -
It’s difficult to put an exact number to how much tip income is in jeopardy, as several states across the country have more specific legislation that protects worker pay. A December EPI study looking into the potential impacts of the rule change noted that 15 states have particularly protective tip policies, including California, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Utah. But restaurant industry lobbying groups have long fought against the Obama-era provision that first protected the earnings of tipped workers. In a statement issued last year, Angelo Amador, the executive director of the Restaurant Law Center, said Obama’s Labor Department was “unfairly discriminating against restaurant employees who work in the back-of-the-house” by enforcing the rule and that “restaurant workers’ rights cannot be subjected to this overstep of authority.” Neither the National Employment Law Project nor the Economic Policy Institute expressed immediate plans Thursday to challenge Trump’s Labor Department in court – but neither specifically ruled out such an option to reporters on Thursday’s call.
U.S. News and World Report February 2, 2018 -
According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit think tank, the change could cost American workers up to $5.8 billion in tips. Women would be hurt the most, with $4.6 billion coming from women-dominated service industries, from servers and bartenders to hair stylists.
Salon February 2, 2018