For most senior drivers, the biggest advantage is the extra income. Many of those who continue working after 65 do so because they would be too poor otherwise, according to a new report from the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute that found the current retirement system inadequate
The New York Times
January 22, 2016
When it comes to wages, researchers on both sides of the debate have published studies with dueling conclusions. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute has found workers in right-to-work states earn three percent less than their counterparts in other states after controlling for various demographic, socioeconomic and macroeconomic factors.
International Business Times
January 22, 2016
The Economic Policy Institute finds their data is better equipped to give the real picture of economic welfare in the country, rather than relying on poverty line thresholds. Comparisons to the poverty level show extreme cases of economic deprivation, but the calculator shows what a family of various sizes really needs to earn a living.
Houston Chronicle
January 21, 2016
Next, youth unemployment. As a May 2015 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) on “The Class of 2015” helpfully notes, “The unemployment rate of young workers is typically slightly more than twice as high as the overall rate.” EPI defined young workers as “recent high school (age 17–20) and college graduates (age 21–24) who are not enrolled in further schooling.” I plugged this definition of “young workers” into the databases at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) website and zeroed in on specifically African Americans, ages 16 to 24. BLS youth data starts at age 16. The not-seasonally-adjusted data, while not ideal, do not support Trump’s claim.
The Washington Post
January 20, 2016
These numbers are from the International Monetary Fund. But Robert Scott, a trade expert with the Economic Policy Institute, told The Week that they’ve been looking at unpublished data from the World Trade Organization that suggests China’s total goods trade surplus with the rest of the world was around $1 trillion in 2014, and could be even higher for 2015. With a gross domestic product (GDP) of $10.35 trillion in 2014, that would put China’s goods trade surplus just below a whopping 10 percent of its economy.
The Week
January 20, 2016
As Republicans claim that the legislation would boost the state’s struggling economy, the research they are using to back up that assertion is coming under scrutiny. The labor-allied Economic Policy Institute is contesting the integrity of a report from researchers associated with the West Virginia University School of Business, who claimed that there is a causal relationship between right-to-work laws and a state’s employment growth rates. EPI says the report relies on flawed data and analysis and doesn’t follow best practices of similar studies in the past.
The American Prospect
January 20, 2016
Wealth inequality is far greater. According to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by the Economic Policy Institute, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans control 35.6 percent of the total wealth of the country—more than a third.
How Stuff Works
January 20, 2016
The Huffington Post
January 19, 2016
The wages of middle-wage workers were either flat or in decline from the 1980s through the 2000s (except for a bump in the late ’90s), and wages for low-wage workers fell 5 percent from 1979 to 2013, according to an analysis from the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The Christian Science Monitor
January 19, 2016
Wage hikes that became law prior to the present-day Fight for $15 era were more incremental and a matter of legislative “horse trading,” says David Cooper, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute. But because the value of the federal minimum wage has eroded so much—it’s been $7.25 since 2009— recent efforts to increase minimum wages at the local, state, and federal levels have focused more on what a worker needs to earn to live comfortably in a certain geographic area. That—along with the attention given to the United States’ vast income inequality—has made the cost of living a more prominent talking point in legislative negotiations and among worker advocates, Cooper says.
Fortune
January 19, 2016