A new analysis underlines that point, showing that state laws that increase the minimum wage help people at the bottom of the income ladder, even when they’re making slightly more than the minimum wage. Those people at the very bottom? Nearly 60 percent of them are women — and they are disproportionately women of color.
The analysis, published Wednesday by Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, looks at the income of the 10th percentile of American workers — that is, the people who earn less than 90 percent of workers in the U.S. — in every state. In 2015, wages for that bottom 10th percentile went up everywhere, but they went up more in the 22 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that increased minimum wages than they did in the other 28 states. And they went up the most for women who live in those states.
The Huffington Post
March 29, 2016
There is still a pay gap among male and female business owners, too. Women-owned businesses earn only about 25 cents for every dollar that male-owned businesses do, according to 2015 data from the Economic Policy Institute.
Christian Science Monitor
March 29, 2016
According to a 2009 survey of union elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute, “workers were forced to attend anti-union one-on-one sessions with a supervisor at least weekly in two-thirds of elections, … employers used supervisor one-on-one meetings to interrogate workers about who they or other workers supported, and in 54% used such sessions to threaten workers.” That’s not all. “Employers threatened to close the plant in 57% of elections, discharged workers in 34%, and threatened to cut wages and benefits in 47% of elections.”
Los Angeles Times
March 24, 2016
The Economic Policy Institute reports that in 2012, state departments of labor recovered $172 million for workers, state attorneys general recovered $14 million and private attorneys recovered $467 million in wage and hour class action lawsuits.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
March 24, 2016
The Economic Policy Institute is an economic research group located in Washington, D.C., and it concluded in a 1999 study that nearly 40 percent of the minimum wage earners in the United States are working parents. To go even further, nearly 33 percent of the minimum wage earners are married couple raising children. Without a minimum wage, these workers may be forced to work for less money.
Houston Chronicle
March 24, 2016
Looking for a raise? Why not come to Massachusetts, home of the fattest paychecks in the country. The median wage in the Bay State is $21.19, a full dollar higher than second-place Maryland and four dollars above the US average, according to the latest data from the Economic Policy Institute.
Boston Globe
March 23, 2016
Though inequality still divides the local economy, the Massachusetts has the highest median wage in the country, according to the latest data from the Economic Policy Institute. The median wage in Massachusetts is $21.19 per hour, a dollar higher than Maryland, which took the No. 2 spot, and $4 above the U.S. average.
Boston.com
March 23, 2016
“This stagnation is hurting our overall growth as people are not able to spend sufficiently. It elevates poverty and hurts our upward mobility,” said Larry Mishel, president of the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “Between the high unemployment we’ve had until recently and the falling or stagnant wages, it puts a tremendous squeeze on families’ ability to get by.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution
March 23, 2016
Yet Washington is only a mid-range factory state. Ohio’s 2014 total was 12.6 percent and Michigan’s 13.5 percent, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. The Midwest has lost millions of factory jobs to offshoring, including a recent notorious case with Carrier, and criticism of the trade status quo by Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump resonated strongly.
Seattle Times
March 23, 2016
Fortunately for drivers, however, that appears to be bullshit.“[Workers’ time] is so far from immeasurable that they measure it down to the minute,” the Economic Policy Institute’s Ross Eisenbrey told ThinkProgress. In their own new paper, Eisenbrey and colleague Larry Mishel seek to deflate the notion that Uber is forcing a revolution in the laws governing sweat-for-money exchanges throughout the economy.
Think Progress
March 23, 2016