Media clips
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Josh Bivens interview.
Bloomberg March 18, 2016 -
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute’s Larry Mishel and Ross Eisenbrey disagree with a recent proposal from former Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris and Princeton economist Alan Krueger to classify “gig workers” as neither employees nor independent contractors but instead something new called “independent workers.” Independent workers would “qualify for many …. of the benefits and protections that employees receive” but would be exempt from minimum wage or overtime because they have multiple employers, making it difficult to allocate hours. Mishel and Eisenbrey, in a paper to be released today, say the allocation problem isn’t insuperable and that Uber drivers and other gig workers should be entitled to overtime and minimum wage protections. Read the full paper here: http://bit.ly/1R4m8kT
Politico March 18, 2016 -
See excerpt: It’s no surprise that voters on the right and the left are uneasy with U.S. trade policy—and they have every right to be. For years, the United States has consistently run much larger trade deficits than other developed nations, and we have suffered more trade-related job loss as a result. While growing exports tend to support domestic employment, growing imports costs jobs and reduces domestic output. Thus, the size and growth of trade deficits is strongly correlated with trade-related job loss. Over the last 20 years, trade and investment deals have increased U.S. trade deficits and cost Americans their jobs. The agreement allowing China into the World Trade Organization led to trade deficits that eliminated 3.2 million jobs between 2001 and 2013 alone. Meanwhile, the United States already faces a trade deficit with countries in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership that cost 2 million U.S. jobs in 2015—a trade deficit which would surely get worse if the pact is enacted. But lost jobs are just the tip of the iceberg of trade’s broader effect on the economy.
The New York Times March 17, 2016 -
A robust job market is improving psychology. In February, employers created 242,000 new jobs, and the unemployment rate stayed at a low 4.9 percent for a second consecutive month. Job creation is strong enough to persuade discouraged workers to renew their employment search, says economist Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank and advocacy group. EPI thinks the participation rate will rebound to about 64 percent, a gain of roughly 2 million workers. The extra workers, he says, will tend to hold down wage gains; lower inflation in turn might prompt the Federal Reserve to delay raising interest rates.
The Washington Post March 17, 2016 -
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president at the Economic Policy Institute and one of the people who advised the lawmakers while they were drafting the bill, thinks these provisions could have a real impact. “By making it treble damages and raising the civil penalties, it makes it less likely that employers will take the chance,” he said. His research on the impact of different state laws aimed at combatting wage theft found that it takes tripling the damages to get employers’ attention and increase compliance with the laws; it just wasn’t happening at the double rate. “You start from a different place when what’s owed is three times,” he said.
There’s a good deal of room for improvement. When the Economic Policy Institute ran the numbers, it found that at least $933 million was paid in back wages for wage theft violations in 2012, nearly three times more than the $350 million stolen in all robberies that year. But given that the protections are weak enough that many workers don’t recover what they’re owed, it estimated that the real total amount taken through wage theft came to nearly $50 billion a year, far more than the $14 billion taken from victims of robberies, burglaries, larcenies, and car thefts. “A lot right now is not punished,” Eisenbrey said. “It’s pretty hard for workers to get a real remedy for what’s happening, which is why it’s so widespread.”
Think Progress March 17, 2016 -
From 1978 to 2014, CEO compensation surged a staggering 997 percent, adjusted for inflation, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Over the same period, typical workers saw compensation grow a modest 10.9 percent. In 1978, CEOs took home about 30 times what the average worker made. In 2014, they earned about 300 times more, according to EPI.
U.S. News & World Report March 17, 2016 -
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute published a report a year ago concluding that wage theft “in the United States is a huge problem for struggling workers.” “Surveys reveal that the underpayment of owed wages can reduce affected workers’ income by 50 percent or more,” the report said.
The Hill March 17, 2016 -
According to a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, the growth in wages adjusted for inflation, or alternatively, wages and benefits adjusted for inflation, has been concentrated among those at the top of the income distribution since the onset of the Great Recession.
CBS Moneywatch March 17, 2016 -
First, the Economic Policy Institute disproved the claim that low-wage workers are mostly teenagers trying to make pocket money. EPI reports that minimum-wage workers average 35 years of age and 88 percent are 20 or older, and they earn half of their families’ total income. Any additional income these workers make would instantly be reinvested into the economy through essential purchases.
Los Angeles Daily News March 17, 2016 -
In addition to a $25 per ton tax on carbon, the budget includes the text of the End Polluter Welfare Act — what Ross calls “the gold standard” for ending fossil fuel subsidies. These acts would raise revenue, which would allow programs to offset costs passed to low-income consumers. “We don’t want their real income to be hurt, but we want the price signal,” Josh Bivens, a research and policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, told ThinkProgress. “You have to pay more on your energy bill, but here is a pile of cash to make up for that.”
Think Progress March 17, 2016