Excerpt: Under the 2004 rules, salaried workers could be denied overtime pay if they earned more than the rather non-managerial sum of $23,660 a year. The Obama administration raised this threshold to a more reasonable $47,476 a year, which the Labor Department estimates will make 4.2 million more workers eligible for overtime. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the department’s action may actually affect three times as many.
The Washington Post
May 23, 2016
Excerpt: The law is designed to provide one of two things, added Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the nonprofit think tank the Economic Policy Institute: “Either give people a reasonable work week, a work-life balance that Congress thinks was the right one, or it’s supposed to compensate them when the employer doesn’t give them that work-life balance,” Eisenbrey told Newsweek.
Newsweek
May 23, 2016
Excerpt: Researchers at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, have found that most employers will experience little to no increase in personnel costs come December 1st. Advocates also believe that, while employers may be less likely to give out supervisory labels in the future, mass demotions, and the attendant pay cuts, are unlikely.
The New Yorker
May 23, 2016
Excerpt: Weak data had convinced many that the Federal Reserve was unlikely to raise interest rates in June, but in recent days multiple Fed policy makers have suggested that an increase should be on the table in the near future. What’s unclear is why. Little new data have emerged to suggest that the economy is much better than it was six or nine months ago. Since interest rates were raised in December, in fact, the pace of economic improvement has slowed almost to a stall. Gross domestic product grew at 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2015 and at 0.5% in the first quarter of 2016. These annualized rates represent extraordinarily weak growth over a six-month period, driven by declines in labor productivity (GDP divided by total hours worked in the economy) in both quarters.
Wall Street Journal
May 20, 2016
The other story was about a policy change achieved through executive action: The Obama administration issued new guidelines on overtime pay, which will benefit an estimated 12.5 million workers. What both stories tell us is that the Obama administration has done much more than most people realize to fight extreme economic inequality. That fight will continue if Hillary Clinton wins the election; it will go into sharp reverse if Mr. Trump wins.
The New York Times
May 20, 2016
Yet others say the assumption that flexibility will get kicked to the curb is exaggerated. Some workers could actually prefer a sharper line between work and home, and the ability to untether themselves 24/7 from their gadgets. Research from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute has shown that, on the whole, salaried employees who would be eligible under the new rule already report similar levels of flexibility to lower-paid hourly workers. And with the right system in place for tracking hours, say some workplace experts, there’s no reason flexible policies or telecommuting can’t co-exist with the new regulation.
The Washington Post
May 20, 2016
Before that, the rate had been $250 a week since 1975. Had that amount been adjusted for inflation, it would be more than $52,000 in today’s dollars, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Dallas Morning News
May 20, 2016
The change is expected to impact 4.3 million workers nationally. In Indiana, 248,000 people—or 25 percent of the state’s salaried workers—are expected to benefit, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
The Indianapolis Star
May 20, 2016
Federal overtime rules require employers to pay 1 1/2 times hourly rates for time worked over 40 hours a week. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank campaigning for higher wages, places Arkansas and Tennessee among states where the impact of the new rule will be the greatest. The share of salaried workers who will directly benefit from the rule is an estimated 30.6 percent in Arkansas, second only to 30.7 percent in West Virginia, the institute reports. In Tennessee, the rule reaches 29.2 percent and in Mississippi, 25.3 percent of managers, according to EPI.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal
May 20, 2016
But a new report from the Economic Policy Institute brings this nugget: Washington, along with Illinois, had the highest Hispanic unemployment rate in the nation, 7.8 percent in March. Nationally, it was 5.6 percent. Among Anglos in Washington, the rate was 4.8 percent. The Hispanic rate here has also risen since the fourth quarter of 2015.
The Seattle Times
May 20, 2016
