Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, questioned whether the labor shortages claimed by businesses that rely on H-2B visas is real. The group has found wages to be stagnant or in decline in most industries that use the visas, a point that would undercut claims of a shortage. “Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market,” Costa said in a statement.
Baltimore Sun
July 18, 2017
But Daniel Costa, who directs immigration research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said that the H2B program lacks enough enforcement to make sure American workers can benefit. As it stands, Costa said, employers can advertise jobs to Americans with unusually low wages and create a “fake labor shortage” that they’re then allowed to fill with vulnerable, easily exploited foreign workers. “Nationally, there isn’t actual evidence of labor shortages people talk about,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t some shortages in some places, but there need to be rules in place to ensure that a fair wage is being offered to American workers first.”
NBC Los Angeles
July 18, 2017
The program allows companies to bring in 66,000 new workers each year — and also to keep workers who got visas in the prior two years. The rules allow companies to maintain a workforce of roughly 115,000 H-2B workers in the United States, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute.
Breitbart
July 18, 2017
Well, for starters, profits. Existing trade laws and promise of cheap labor have enticed American companies to manufacture in places like China. A 2014 report by the Economic Policy Institute said that trade with China moved 3.2 million jobs out of the U.S. between 2001 and 2013. The report said that trade with China caused job losses in all 50 states and 2.4 million of those jobs were manufacturing jobs. “Growing trade deficits with China have hurt American workers and decimated U.S. manufacturing,” EPI Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research Robert E. Scott said in a December 2014 press release. “If policymakers are serious about supporting manufacturing jobs, we must work to put an end to China’s unfair trade policies.”
ATTN:
July 18, 2017
Factor No. 2: Anemic teacher pay
· The temptation to go back for a master’s is even stronger because public school teacher pay has been suffering in general. According to a 2016 report by the Economic Policy Institute, teachers earn 17 percent less than similarly educated workers in other fields. In 1994, the gap was just 1.8 percent.
NPR
July 16, 2017
Robert E. Scott, a senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research for the Economic Policy Institute, in a blog post Tuesday underscored the dilemma in economic sanctions.
One segment of the economy – manufacturers that use cheaper foreign steel – could be hamstrung with rising materials costs, he said.
The Detroit Metro Times
July 16, 2017
And economist Elise Gould from the Economic Policy Institute has estimated that the cost for lead paint hazard control just for homes considered to be a significant risk — because the homes had a combination of both lead paint hazards and low income families with children under the age of 6 years — is an estimated $1.2 to $11.0 billion. Gould also found that the benefits of tackling lead contamination on a widespread scale are substantial given the costs of medical treatment, lost earnings, tax revenue, special education, lead-linked attention deficit hyperactivity disorder cases, and criminal activity.
Think Progress
July 15, 2017
But premium subsidies would be less generous under the Senate plan, according to Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. And cost-sharing subsidies would disappear, so workers would pay more out of pocket. … “Pre-ACA, to get really good insurance, you needed a job, period,” Bivens said. After it passed, “you could decide to work non-traditional jobs and have decent insurance you could rely on.”
Mashable
July 15, 2017
U.S. employers added a robust 222,000 jobs in June, the most in four months, a reassuring sign that businesses may be confident enough to keep hiring despite a slow-growing economy.
But despite the promising job growth, wage growth still disappoints, according to the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. EPI noted in a release that the U.S. needs to add at least 232,000 jobs per month over the next year to lower the unemployment rate to 4 percent and bring another million workers back in from the sidelines. (EPI cited throughout and Dan C. quoted)
The Reading Eagle
July 15, 2017
Those admitted to the U.S. on the basis of merit have accounted for less than 10 percent of all legal immigrants over the past 15 years, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute and the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Yearbook, and Trump pledged as a presidential candidate to shift the U.S. to a merit-based immigration system.
Politico
July 13, 2017