Because this question always comes up in the comments and on Twitter: Personally, I think the U.S. could easily go above $10 an hour without any major problems, and I suspect that a lot of states could pretty much handle $12, the latest number that the very liberal Economic Policy Institute has advocated. Again, 50 percent the median full-time wage is just a guideline.
Slate
January 4, 2016
Dan Crawford, a spokesman for the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said policymakers should consider other options to “jump-start wage growth across the board” like lifting the federal minimum wage and strengthening collective bargaining rights.
International Business Times
January 4, 2016
But that might change in 2016, given that the improvements in job creation and hiring in 2015 has taken some of the slack out of the labor market, economists note. “If we keep adding jobs at a decent pace, it will eat away at slack in the market,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “Workers will have more ability to bargain for higher wages.”
CBS Moneywatch
January 4, 2016
It’s hard to find a clearer illustration of escalating economic inequality than the growing divide between worker pay and worker productivity. The Economic Policy Institute’s top charts of 2015 depict the problem in simple terms. From the late 1940s through the 1960s, hourly compensation and productivity increased at the same rate. Beginning in the early 1970s, however, worker wages began stagnating, while productivity levels continued to climb.
The American Prospect
January 4, 2016
Really, this is true, but only sort of true. Executive salaries have continued to rise at exponential rates, to the detriment of the wage workers. According to a study in the Economic Policy Institute, CEOs make “300 times more than typical workers.”
Vice News
January 4, 2016
The past 20 years have witnessed a major retreat from desegregation efforts. Lawmakers have backed away from pro-integration policy while courts have hobbled or even stopped enforcing desegregation orders. The result is that, once again, school segregation is the norm in America. Thirty-nine percent of black students attend schools that are more than 90 percent minority up from 34 percent in 1991,according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Slate
January 4, 2016
But critics argue that MES will kill traditional industries, including steel, ceramics and textiles, because it will become far harder to retaliate against Chinese dumping with countervailing tariffs. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington has concluded that MES would endanger as many as 3.5m jobs in the EU.
Financial Times
January 4, 2016
The effect could be similar to what globalization did to blue-collar positions in the manufacturing sector, which lost more than 3 million jobs between 2001 and 2013, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
January 4, 2016
But some labor experts say the ruling’s effects could go far beyond political speech ramifications: If agency fees are optional when union representation is guaranteed, then what incentive exists for employees to fork over hefty union dues? Jeffrey Keefe, a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute and former professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said it’s not surprising to see a great deal of free riding in right-to-work states.
International Business Times
January 4, 2016
The Pew data went back to 1970 but the middle class likely held the crown even longer, going back to the late 1940s. To be fair, the conclusion is less stunning to those who have been following the work of the Economic Policy Institute, specifically its State of Working America, and other scholars.
Seattle Times
January 4, 2016