The Washington-based Economic Policy Institute in May reported that the gap between CEO compensation and that of a typical worker is now 231-to-one. It was 58.5-to-one in 1989, the institute said in a report implying that productivity gains through the decades have benefited executives more than workers.
San Antonio News-Express
November 16, 2015
The idea was fleshed out in a follow-up brief by the conservative R Street Institute, which described a private benefits exchange through which companies with quasi-independent contractors could provide support without fear of being forced to treat them as employees, with all the costs and risks that entails. That’s the kind of thing that worries Ross Eisenbrey, vice president with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which wasn’t invited to the discussions that led to the manifesto. “Does that mean that someone like Uber should be able to do what they’re doing regardless of the worker’s classification?” Eisenbrey said, after reading it.
His suspicion was first piqued by something more basic: How the letter quantifies the size of the independent workforce. It cites a survey by the Freelancer’s Union, which pegs the number at 53 million people. Official numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, recently analyzed by the Pew Research Center, estimate there are more like 14.6 million self-employed workers, which has actually been declining both in absolute terms and as a share of the labor force for a couple decades (though current statistical methods may not be capturing the growth in on-demand work). “It’s not true, and I think it’s in service of making people think that things are changing much faster than they are, and that therefore the legal models that we have shouldn’t be applied,” says Eisenbrey. “That’s Uber’s wish, that they escape from employment obligations, that they not have to pay minimum wage and overtime. I think that something like this could be misused.”
The Washington Post
November 13, 2015
The SEASON Act, also sponsored by Reps. Andy Harris, R-Md., and Charles Boustany, R-La., would adjust the way seasonal workers are calculated under the H-2B cap. Returning workers who received a visa in any of the three prior years would not be counted against the annual limit. The result would be two to three times more foreign workers allowed into the U.S. to fill those jobs, said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute. “Industry has been lobbying to raise the cap to 200,000 or more, so this would get them closer to that goal,” Costa said.
USA Today
November 13, 2015
Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the backlash to Sanders’s past comments highlighted the candidate’s need to refine his rhetoric. When Sanders talks about immigration leading to lower wages, he’s talking specifically about low-wage guest-worker programs, Costa said, and “it’s hard to get that context in a sound bite.”
Bloomberg
November 13, 2015
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, expressed optimism that the agency could publish the final rule in the first half of next year. “It could be effective within 30 days after that,” he said, although Schwartz said Smith told the panel audience at the conference that she thought the agency would give employers at least 60 days to comply.
Eisenbrey added that the stakes to finish the rule quickly are high. A delay could give lawmakers in opposition to the changes opportunity to derail implementation. “If they keep it simple and all they do is raise the threshold and respond to issues about raising the threshold … I don’t believe it should take them any longer than April or May to do it,” he said.
NBC News
November 13, 2015
A separate federal benchmark, known as the Supplemental Poverty Measure, shows a much higher poverty rate for California: 23.4%, the highest in the nation, according to the most recent data. The rate reflects California’s high — and growing — housing costs. “The fact that California housing is so much more expensive means the threshold to be in poverty is a lot higher,” said David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Los Angeles Times
November 13, 2015
Despite these positive signs it is unclear whether companies are confident enough in the economy to break with years of slow increases in hourly pay, or whether their workers feel confident enough to seek better compensation, says Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
U.S. News & World Report
November 13, 2015
In some sectors, such as health care, finance and insurance, and professional and business services, there are now more job openings than job-seekers in the labor market, according to JOLTS data for August analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute. Meanwhile, EPI reports that the odds are still stacked against job-seekers in sectors that were hit hard in the recession and have been slow to recover, including construction, teaching, and some manufacturing fields.
Marketplace
November 12, 2015
Seniors and vets would get an increase of about $581 next year — a little less than $50 a month. That $581 increase would cover almost three months of groceries for seniors or a year’s worth of out-of-pocket costs on critical prescription drugs for the average Medicare beneficiary. That $50 a month is worth a lot to those 71 million Americans. According to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, that little boost could lift more than 1 million Americans out of poverty.
CNN
November 12, 2015
Lawrence Mishel, the president of the labor-friendly Economic Policy Institute, said the most recent Republican debate confirmed his belief that “the next presidential election is going to have, as a major element, a debate about who can generate wage growth for the vast majority.” The GOP candidates’ opposition to raising the minimum wage “definitely won’t play well to a general election voter pool,” he said.
Al Jazeera America
November 12, 2015