News of Puzder’s withdrawal was met warmly by progressives and left-leaning advocacy groups, who have criticized him for his stances on minimum wage increases and automation. Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said in a statement Wednesday that Puzder’s withdrawal was “welcome news for working people.” “President Trump should nominate someone who will look out for working people, not the profits of big business or the incomes of the 1 percent,” she said.
U.S. News & World Report
February 16, 2017
“Right now, they’re clearly getting a big wage discount for being in South Carolina, and that’s one of the reasons there’s an election,” said Larry Mishel, president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute in the District of Columbia. According to the union, Boeing’s workers in North Charleston make 36 percent less, on average, than workers building the same plans at Boeing’s main facility in Everett, Washington.
The Washington Post
February 16, 2017
For agencies, one major obstacle is summoning the resources and political will to challenge the “substantially the same” clause, said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute. It was the Obama White House’s lack of interest in another ergonomics rule that torpedoed efforts to challenge the substantially similar language, according to Eisenbrey, who served as OSHA’s policy director at the time of the 2001 ergonomics rule.
But that doesn’t mean a future OSMRE might not try it, Eisenbrey said. “If this really is a clear winner of a rule and you have a President [Tom] Perez or a very progressive Democrat in office, maybe they would want to try it,” Eisenbrey said.
Bloomberg BNA
February 16, 2017
Ross Eisenbrey of the Economic Policy Institute, who has testified in support of the law before Congress, says Burr’s hiring is unsettling because the Department of Labor has some discretion in the setting of prevailing wages. “They have latitude about what they survey and how often they survey,” Eisenbrey said. “It wouldn’t take a genius to identify areas and work hard to get non-union employers to answer the survey, and that could lower the prevailing wage.”
Pacific Standard
February 15, 2017
In 2013, the top one percent of families nationally made 25.3 times as much as the bottom 99 percent, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute released in June.
The Washington Post
February 15, 2017
Even critics of the agreement such as Robert Scott, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, agreed that the deal is crucial. While he estimates Nafta has resulted in 700,000 lost American jobs, it would be a “huge mistake” to dissolve it now that it has caused the three countries to integrate so closely. Gary Clyde Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute for International Economics likened Mexico to “another state” under Nafta, in the eyes of U.S. firms.
Bloomberg
February 15, 2017
“At least for middle-wage men, the impact of the erosion of unions on the wages of both union and non-union workers is likely the largest single factor underlying wage stagnation and wage inequality,” according to a report from the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute cited by CBS. They are rightly referred to by opponents as right-to-freeload laws.
Concord Monitor
February 15, 2017
Fight for $15 has also mobilized non-CKE fast-food employees to rally against the nominee. And the Economic Policy Institute and Jobs with Justice have teamed up for a joint initiative to defeat Puzder, whom they call “grossly out of touch with Americans who struggle to make ends meet” and “an especially dangerous choice for Labor Secretary.”
Mother Jones
February 15, 2017
Trump’s agenda, argues the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, “includes policies that would do nothing to reverse near-stagnant wage growth and rising inequality. Tax cuts for the rich and corporations, deregulation of finance and worker protections, and assaults on unions would all clearly undercut working Americans’ economic clout, not increase it.”
The Progressive
February 15, 2017
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning think tank, said that the trade deficit is costing American jobs. “By 2010, the U.S. had a trade deficit with Mexico that displaced 682,900 jobs,” EPI said in a study.
ABC News
February 13, 2017