Media clips
-
President Trump is expected to unveil his tax plan tomorrow. It would reportedly lower the corporate tax rate to 15 percent. Budget analysts predict that would cost the federal government more than $2 trillion in revenue over a decade. But the administration says the tax cuts will boost the economy so much that they’ll pay for themselves because of increased economic activity. Is that realistic? (Hunter speaks at 1:53-2:05)
Marketplace April 26, 2017 -
Do tariffs necessarily mean more jobs for steelworkers? A typical U.S. steel plant uses far fewer workers today than in the past, thanks to automation. And lower demand for domestic steel affects U.S. jobs, though an infrastructure program would provide a boost. But it’s axiomatic that lowering costs for American steel relative to Chinese rivals would help the industry (and half a million jobs, according to a 2014 Economic Policy Institute report). Plus, I don’t recall the proviso in trade enforcement that violations aren’t important unless they definitively bring the affected industry back to 1960s levels of employment. Anyway, there are lots of other reasons to prevent China’s predatory pricing.
The Fiscal Times April 25, 2017 -
Interview with Daniel Costa about the problems with the H-1B program and what to make of Trump’s new executive order.
The American Prospect April 25, 2017 -
We go to Washington hoping to make a difference. But in many cases, low starting salaries and unpaid internships are barriers to entry. It’s a phenomenon Carlos Vera described last year for NBC Latino, writing, “Interning in Congress is a rite of passage for any college student who wants a career in politics, but they don’t come cheap. Congressional internships are generally unpaid, and in D.C. will cost you a pretty penny.” As Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, told the New York Times last year, “It restricts access to jobs in government to a narrower group of people.” The median white family has 13 times the net wealth of the median black family and 10 times the wealth of the median Latino family, narrowing the access of people of color to congressional internships that translate to entry-level jobs, which translates to fewer minorities advancing to senior staff positions: In 2015, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that of 336 chief of staff, legislative director, communications director and committee staff director positions, people of color held only 24.
The Washington Post April 25, 2017 -
The irony is that grueling workweeks aren’t exclusively an elite phenomenon. Far from it. Many less fortunate Americans perform similar feats of productivity, although they have fewer incentives and opportunities to advertise it. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that Americans workers work significantly more hours than they did a few decades ago – especially women, blacks, and the poor. A black woman in the bottom fifth of earners worked 349 more hours in 2015 than she would have in 1979. The reason is simple: wages have barely budged since the 1970s, which means today’s workers have to work harder to make ends meet.
The Guardian April 24, 2017 -
“Employers routinely select the lowest skill levels and pad their profits by hiring H-1Bs at the lowest possible ‘prevailing wage’ levels,” according to a 2016 Congress testimony made by Ron Hira, a research associate for the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit think-tank in Washington D.C. In his testimony, Hira claimed that 41% of all the H-1B applications in 2015 were issued to workers in Level I positions — those that are considered entry level for their respective occupation — and they, according to Hira’s analysis, generally make 40% less than the Level III workers who are considered more experienced. The analysis did not directly compare the wages of H-1B workers and U.S. workers while controlling the skill level of jobs. (Ron and EPI cited throughout)
Market Watch April 24, 2017 -
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has compiled a fact sheet on the Trump administration’s deregulation efforts that it says “reveals a policy agenda that favors corporate profits ahead of worker protections and public health.” Celine McNicholas, labor counsel at EPI and co-author of the fact sheet, argued that regulations raising the bar for treatment of government labor have a positive ripple effect. “The federal government is a huge consumer of services and to the extent that they set fundamental labor and employment standards…that has a significant effect on the way companies will do business,” she said. McNicholas also suggested the focus on costs for businesses is misplaced because deregulation passes costs on to workers and their families. “Nothing’s free,” she said. “There’s a cost. It’s just about where is the cost being absorbed.”
WJLA April 21, 2017 -
Some of the states you’ll definitely want to avoid if you’re trying to keep the cost of having kids low? New York, for one: according to Market Watch, a report from the Economic Policy Institute found that of the 10 most expensive places for a two-parent, two-child family to live, five of them could be found in the state of New York. Connecticut claimed an additional two spots on the list, while San Francisco, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii, also stuck out as particularly expensive cities for families. (EPI cited throughout)
Romper April 21, 2017 -
Data from the Economic Policy Institute show that women and people of color in the workforce earn less, on average, than white, male workers. In the Ohio Valley region this ‘wage gap’ hovers around 20 percent: In Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia an African American worker will earn on average 82 cents for every dollar a white worker earns. For women, it’s about 78 cents. And that gap persists even as education levels rise among workers.
WVPB April 21, 2017 -
The Replacements: The H-1B visa system has been broken for decades. Now workers want Trump to fix it
“The simplest, quickest, easiest fix out there is the Durbin-Grassley bill, I think, but the tech community has been dead set against it,” says Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute. The I Squared bill, says Costa, is a gift to the tech industry, offering “many more numbers and no real reforms.” He says that while Trump’s proposal calls for stronger enforcement, it isn’t very specific, and that deeper reform is needed. “What we’re all talking about here is really just sort of minimum basic standards to make this thing not be a total corporate scam.” In the current system, Costa believes that “US workers are getting screwed and migrant workers who come here are getting screwed as well.” (Ron Hira quoted throughout too)
The Verge April 21, 2017