A decline in unionization rates has led to lower wages for nonunion workers over the past three decades, according to a new report from the labor-affiliated Economic Policy Institute. The analysis shows that nonunion wages are measurably higher in industry-regions with higher unionization rates, and that union decline has exacerbated wage inequality for both unionized and nonunionized workers. That decline has been particularly felt by men in the private sector who lack a college education and don’t belong to a labor union. For all nonunion private-sector men, EPI estimates this translates into an annual wage loss of $109 billion.
Bloomberg BNA
September 16, 2016
He would create a new income tax deduction for child care expenses, capped at the average cost of child care in each state. That cost ranges from less than $5,000 a year in Mississippi to about $13,000 in Massachusetts and almost $18,000 in Washington, D.C., according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The New York Times
September 15, 2016
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning think tank, keeps its own tally of “missing workers” who it says are discouraged from seeking work since the Great Recession. Its latest tally is 2.2 million workers who, if counted as unemployed, would raise the benchmark rate to 6.2 percent. “I fully expect those couple of millions of workers to return to the workforce,” says Elise Gould, a senior economist at the EPI. But that number doesn’t capture all the prime-age men who have dropped out altogether, she adds.
Christian Science Monitor
September 15, 2016
“It does feel like we’ve turned a corner. We saw declines for so long, and to see this big increase, it’s indicative of more positive things to come,” said Elise Gould, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “But families are still struggling to make ends meet. I think that’s just a fact.”
The Hill
September 15, 2016
The New York Times
September 15, 2016
In that vision, Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., a left-leaning think tank that researches labor issues, saw a remarkable admission of just how far Uber’s technology has to go to reach even partial automation. “Some of the automation that people fear is really far off and uncertain, and I think that includes self-driving cars,” Mr. Mishel said. “We’re much closer to having vehicles that are relatively automated on highways, but urban driving is a much more complex problem to solve. And I think this is a recognition of that.” Mr. Mishel said he agrees with Uber that automation tends to foster economic growth. If Uber’s technology one day brings down the cost of providing a ride from $10 to $5, people will have $5 in their pocket they didn’t have before. That extra money will lead to an overall better working economy, he said. “The idea that automation is going to eliminate jobs in the economy overall is at best exaggerated and almost certainly is not true,” Mr. Mishel said.
Pittsburg Post-Gazette
September 15, 2016
“The system that is now broken for everyone else has always been broken for Hispanics, and it’s just getting worse for them,” said Monique Morrissey, an economist at Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies in the United States. According to a study by the EPI, only 26% of Hispanic families have retirement account savings, compared to 65% of white non-Hispanic families and 41% of black families. Many older Latinos can never fully retire because they don’t have the savings to do so, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute… “We want people to work until they’re 89, but only if they enjoy it,” said Morrissey, the economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “We want it to be a choice and not a decision born out of desperation.”
Fusion
September 15, 2016
The former secretary of state’s plan would cap day care costs at 10 per cent of a household’s income. Research from the Economic Policy Institute shows that in 33 states and the District of Columbia, infant care costs exceed the average cost of state university tuition. She would also provide federal funding for states that expand access to pre-school for all four-year-olds.
Fiscal Times
September 14, 2016
What’s more, changes starting in 2013 in the way the census asks people about their incomes can distort comparisons with previous years. After adjusting the data for these changes, according to Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute, the income of American households in the middle of the distribution last year was still 4.6 percent below its level in 2007 and 5.4 percent below where it was in 1999.
The New York Times
September 14, 2016
“The highest income growth was in the bottom fifth” of workers, “which is very welcome news,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute think tank. Furman, of the White House, credited wage-boosting policy initiatives for some of that increase: “The fact that millions of workers have gotten a raise, as states have raised minimum wages, has definitely had an effect there,” he said.
The Washington Post
September 14, 2016