In the US, there were roughly 2 million workers in in-home occupations in 2012, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). About 93% of the workers were women and more than 33% were immigrants.
The Guardian
November 16, 2015
A two-parent, two-child family in the Sioux City metro area will spend 19.7 percent of their yearly living expenses on child care — more than they will spend on housing, health care, food or transportation, according to a report released last month by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Sioux City Journal
November 16, 2015
Comparing American students to high-flying students in South Korea or Finland is pointless, a new study by the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute argues. Education reformers have long noted that American students do poorly on PISA tests, administered to 15-year-olds in nearly 60 economically advanced countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Deseret News
November 16, 2015
The Washington-based Economic Policy Institute in May reported that the gap between CEO compensation and that of a typical worker is now 231-to-one. It was 58.5-to-one in 1989, the institute said in a report implying that productivity gains through the decades have benefited executives more than workers.
San Antonio News-Express
November 16, 2015
The idea was fleshed out in a follow-up brief by the conservative R Street Institute, which described a private benefits exchange through which companies with quasi-independent contractors could provide support without fear of being forced to treat them as employees, with all the costs and risks that entails. That’s the kind of thing that worries Ross Eisenbrey, vice president with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which wasn’t invited to the discussions that led to the manifesto. “Does that mean that someone like Uber should be able to do what they’re doing regardless of the worker’s classification?” Eisenbrey said, after reading it.
His suspicion was first piqued by something more basic: How the letter quantifies the size of the independent workforce. It cites a survey by the Freelancer’s Union, which pegs the number at 53 million people. Official numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, recently analyzed by the Pew Research Center, estimate there are more like 14.6 million self-employed workers, which has actually been declining both in absolute terms and as a share of the labor force for a couple decades (though current statistical methods may not be capturing the growth in on-demand work). “It’s not true, and I think it’s in service of making people think that things are changing much faster than they are, and that therefore the legal models that we have shouldn’t be applied,” says Eisenbrey. “That’s Uber’s wish, that they escape from employment obligations, that they not have to pay minimum wage and overtime. I think that something like this could be misused.”
The Washington Post
November 13, 2015
The SEASON Act, also sponsored by Reps. Andy Harris, R-Md., and Charles Boustany, R-La., would adjust the way seasonal workers are calculated under the H-2B cap. Returning workers who received a visa in any of the three prior years would not be counted against the annual limit. The result would be two to three times more foreign workers allowed into the U.S. to fill those jobs, said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute. “Industry has been lobbying to raise the cap to 200,000 or more, so this would get them closer to that goal,” Costa said.
USA Today
November 13, 2015
Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the backlash to Sanders’s past comments highlighted the candidate’s need to refine his rhetoric. When Sanders talks about immigration leading to lower wages, he’s talking specifically about low-wage guest-worker programs, Costa said, and “it’s hard to get that context in a sound bite.”
Bloomberg
November 13, 2015
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, expressed optimism that the agency could publish the final rule in the first half of next year. “It could be effective within 30 days after that,” he said, although Schwartz said Smith told the panel audience at the conference that she thought the agency would give employers at least 60 days to comply.
Eisenbrey added that the stakes to finish the rule quickly are high. A delay could give lawmakers in opposition to the changes opportunity to derail implementation. “If they keep it simple and all they do is raise the threshold and respond to issues about raising the threshold … I don’t believe it should take them any longer than April or May to do it,” he said.
NBC News
November 13, 2015
A separate federal benchmark, known as the Supplemental Poverty Measure, shows a much higher poverty rate for California: 23.4%, the highest in the nation, according to the most recent data. The rate reflects California’s high — and growing — housing costs. “The fact that California housing is so much more expensive means the threshold to be in poverty is a lot higher,” said David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Los Angeles Times
November 13, 2015
Despite these positive signs it is unclear whether companies are confident enough in the economy to break with years of slow increases in hourly pay, or whether their workers feel confident enough to seek better compensation, says Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
U.S. News & World Report
November 13, 2015