The Economic Policy Institute estimates 290,000 Tennessee workers, or 29 percent of the state’s salaried workforce, fall into the salary gap being addressed. Nationally, there are 12.5 million workers.”Many of them are being made to work overtime without pay, even though they should be receiving pay,” EPI spokesman Dan Crawford said. “We’ve gotten very used to in this country to working very, very long hours without any sort of compensation…. The overtime rule is the first step in sort of getting back to a point where work is valued a little bit more and where workers’ time is valued a little bit more.”The flexibility that Alexander says will affect workers who become hourly workers is rare among many salaried workers who fall into this salary range, he said.”This is going to mean more free time for workers or more money in their pockets or a combination of both, and I don’t think that is going to hurt morale at all,” Crawford said.
The Tennessean
July 2, 2016
In this post, Elaine Weiss has some advice for federal policy-makers who are drawing up the rules. She wants them to watch a film about a high-poverty school in Ohio to learn what students, teachers and schools really need to succeed today. Weiss is the national coordinator of the Broader Bolder Approach to Education, a project of the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post
July 2, 2016
In an editorial about guestworkers, the New York Times cited EPI’s Daniel Costa’s congressional testimony on how the H-2B temporary foreign worker program is harming both American workers and many of the migrant workers who come to work as landscapers and construction workers, as well as in other major H-2B jobs.
The New York Times
July 1, 2016
Underemployment was at 9% before the recession, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a research group. “Recent college graduates are having a hard time finding a job — finding a good job has become much more difficult,” says Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and expert on the job market for college grads.
CNN Money
July 1, 2016
California was also among 24 states where the top 1 percent gobbled up at least half of all income growth between 2009 and 2013 and among 10 states where the 1 percent’s share of income jumped the most between 1979 and 2013, says the Economic Policy Institute study.
Sacramento Bee
July 1, 2016
The Washington Post
July 1, 2016
In 41 states, the cost of sending a 4-year-old to full-time preschool exceeds 10% of a median family income—the level the federal government deems to be affordable—according to data from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Full-time preschool is more expensive than average tuition at a public college in 23 states. Care for an infant costs more than average rent in 17 states, the study found.
Wall Street Journal
July 1, 2016
It’s these trade deficit figures that economist Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute points to when asked where the U.S. economy would be without NAFTA and China’s entry into the WTO. “We had balanced trade with Mexico for 15 years before NAFTA took effect,” he says. “NAFTA encouraged U.S. multinationals to outsource and exports factories to Mexico. Absent NAFTA, I’m not sure that would have happened.” Scott also points out that since China entered the WTO, the U.S. trade deficit with the nation has exploded.
Fortune
July 1, 2016
Automation and the challenges of remaining competitive in a global marketplace have certainly made middle-class jobs harder to find. But it’s worth noting that as the middle class has shrunk, wages for people at the top have continued to rise. Those with very high wages make 41 percent more than they did in 1979, while middle-wage workers earn just 6 percent more, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The Atlantic
June 30, 2016
The same logic applies to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Mr. Trump calls “the worst trade deal in history.” He cites as an authority the Economic Policy Institute, the AFL-CIO’s think tank, but that’s like asking Sid Blumenthal if Hillary Clinton is trustworthy. Most economists understand that free trade with Mexico and Canada has been a historic success.
The Wall Street Journal
June 30, 2016