“Increasingly, economic commentators are quick to point out that, as the economy gets closer to full employment, we will add fewer jobs each month. This is true, but by every measure, we are not there yet. August’s payroll number is weak tea–we need to have stronger job growth for a more sustained period before we can say we’re at full employment. The unemployment rate, the labor-force participation rate, and the employment-to-population ratio were little changed.” –Elise Gould, Economic Policy Institute
The Wall Street Journal
September 2, 2016
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said the latest payrolls report meant the Fed should hold fire. “August’s payroll number is weak tea – we need to have stronger job growth for a more sustained period before we can say we’re at full employment,” she said. “This is the last jobs report before the Federal Reserve meets and potentially raises rates. They should hold steady, and let the economy to steep a little longer, so the recovery can reach the most distressed communities.”
The Guardian
September 2, 2016
“August’s payroll number is weak tea—we need to have stronger job growth for a more sustained period before we can say we’re at full employment.” — Elise Gould, senior economist, Economic Policy Institute.
Market Watch
September 2, 2016
Linking education to U.S. economic prosperity is not exactly a novel idea, and research time and time again has supported this philosophy. However, improving the country’s education system could be a long haul, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute. The problem? It’s hard to recruit the best college grads to the sector when teachers get paid less than other college graduates with similar occupations, the study says.
Bloomberg
September 2, 2016
A move Hunter Blair, from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said only exacerbates the problem. “As soon as they see a tax holiday, where they’re able to only pay five percent, instead of the full 35 percent that they owe, in the future they think about that and they say ‘hey, we should put more of our profits offshore’”, said Blair. At the heart of the issue, notes Blair, is a federal policy that allows multi-national corporations to defer paying taxes in the first place. “So a fix looks like, you want to close the deferral loophole that allows them to stash these profits offshore,” Blair said.
Marketplace
September 2, 2016
According to the Economic Policy Institute, union membership among men in the private sector dropped from 34 percent in 1979 to just 10 percent in 2013. Among women, unionization has dropped from 16 to 6 percent in the same time period. A study released on Tuesday by the EPI points to declining union membership as one cause of wage stagnation among all Americans.
Huffington Post
September 2, 2016
The policy goes back to Bill Clinton, who campaigned for president on rolling back excessive CEO pay, which according to the Economic Policy Institute jumped from an average of $1.49 million in 1988 to $4.9 million in 1992 (adjusted for inflation). At the time, companies could deduct all of their compensation from their corporate taxes, as a normal business expense. Clinton’s idea was to cap that: No corporation could write off an executive’s salary above the first $1 million. This measure passed in Clinton’s first budget in 1993, and became section 162(m) of the IRS tax code.
New Republic
September 2, 2016
The consequences are not only tragic, but costly. Billions of dollars are used to educate and treat lead poisoning in children. The Washington DC-based think-tank, the Economic Policy Institute, found that for every dollar spent to control lead hazards, between $17 and $221 could be saved.
Al Jazeera America
September 2, 2016
New Obama Administration regulations that ensure workers with salaries less than $47,476 a year are paid for overtime hours take effect Dec. 1, 2016. The Department of Labor estimates changes to the so-called “white-collar exemption” will entitle 4.2 million executive, professional and administrative employees to overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a week. The Economic Policy Institute estimates an additional 8 million workers, who are likely presently entitled to overtime but not receiving it, will finally start getting the pay they deserve.
The Hill
September 2, 2016
You don’t have to be in a union for your paycheck to feel the impact of organized labor’s long decline. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute, a research group that advocates on behalf of low- and middle-income workers, calculates how much more nonunion private-sector workers would have earned in 2013 had private-sector union membership remained at 1979 levels. For men, wages would have been 5 percent higher, an average of $2,704 annually, and those with less education would have seen greater impact, the report said.
Chicago Tribune
September 1, 2016