Media clips
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There is no doubt, however, that trade does lead to some job losses. One study showed that rising trade with China cost America at least 2 million jobs, and Robert Scott of the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute has found that the net job loss due to trade and currency manipulation could be as high as 5.8 million jobs.
Washington Monthly March 21, 2016 -
According to data recently made available by the Economic Policy Institute, only twenty six percent of Hispanic families had savings in a retirement plan like a 401k or IRA in twenty thirteen. As reported by CNNMoney, by contrast, sixty five percent of white families and forty one percent of African-American families had retirement accounts.
WYPR March 21, 2016 -
Can you really afford to live here on $15 an hour (which isn’t fully implemented yet—the current minimum for large employers is $13 per hour)? The short answer is no. For comparison, we used the Economic Policy Institute’s budget calculator to look at the cost of living in 20 cities, including Seattle, for a single person with no children. It’s worth noting that the amount the calculator came up with was about $4,000 a year more than the very conservative estimate I came up with compiling numbers separately.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer March 21, 2016 -
When speaking about the impact of trade deals, Trump (as in a USA Today opinion article) often cites research from labor-backed groups, such as the Economic Policy Institute, about supposed job losses from trade agreements. Interestingly, Bernie Sanders (Vt.), a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, often cites the same data—such as a claim that 800,000 jobs were lost because of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The Washington Post March 18, 2016 -
Hillary Clinton doesn’t get it: Paul Krugman, Bernie Sanders and the truth about the free trade scam
In late 2013, just before NAFTA turned 20, Jeff Faux, founder of the Economic Policy Institute, wrote an assessment of what NAFTA had meant. He called it “A Template for Neoliberal Globalization,” and highlighted four main ways it had impacted American workers: First, it caused the loss of some 700,000 jobs as companies moved their production to Mexico, where labor was cheaper….Second, NAFTA strengthened the ability of U.S. employers to force workers to accept lower wages and benefits….Third, NAFTA drove several million Mexican workers and their families out of the agriculture and small business sectors, which could not compete with the flood of products—often subsidized—from U.S. producers. This dislocation was a major cause of the dramatic increase of undocumented workers in the United States….
Salon March 18, 2016 -
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