The foundation asked seven think tanks from across the ideological spectrum to submit detailed plans for putting the debt back on a sustainable trajectory. Every single institution agreed that American borrowing must be reined in. “It gives me hope to see a couple hundred different policy proposals that could solve this,” said Michael A. Peterson, chief executive of the foundation. “This is a solvable challenge for the United States.” (The think tanks include: the American Action Forum, the American Enterprise Institute, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Center for American Progress, the Economic Policy Institute, the Manhattan Institute and the Progressive Policy Institute.)
The Washington Post
July 23, 2024
The disparity between workers pay and management has been fuelling labour unrest in the United States. According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, CEO compensation rose 1,460 percent between 1978 and 2021.
BBC News
July 22, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the cost of daycare is unaffordable for 92% of families in the state.
Wichita Eagle
July 22, 2024
“For at least the last 40 years, pay and job quality for workers across the South has been inferior compared to other regions—thanks to the racist and anti-worker Southern economic development model.”
That’s according to a Thursday report by Chandra Childers, a senior policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The new publication is part of her “Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation” series.
Common Dreams
July 22, 2024
Jennifer Sherer, director of the State Worker Power Initiative with the Economic Policy Institute, addresses attendees at the July 16 roundtable. [Paywall].
Corridor Business Journal
July 22, 2024
However, for everyone else, it has been detrimental, as wage growth has not kept up with productivity growth. Figures provided by the Economic Policy Institute reveal that productivity rose 74% between 1973 and 2013, but the average hourly wage earned by workers gained only 9%.
Business Insider
July 22, 2024
Nationally, school districts are struggling to hire bus drivers since the beginning of the pandemic. Research by the Economic Policy Institute showed last year that the number of bus drivers working in K-12 schools was down 15.1% since 2019, according to a report by the National Education Association.
Denver Gazette
July 22, 2024
A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, found that Southern and Midwestern states are more likely to misuse preemptions to interfere with labor standards. They write that state preemption laws are “intertwined with a history of segregation and other policy choices that have reinforced anti-Black racism and white supremacy.”
Jacobin
July 22, 2024
Jennifer Sherer of the Economic Policy Institute shared statistics and a brief history of federal child labor restrictions on Tuesday, July 16, to the room of more than 30 union laborers and elected officials. She directs the Worker Power Project for the institute and is the former head of the University of Iowa Labor Center.
The data indicated that the workforce is continuing to grow, while the number of U.S. Department of Labor agents available to investigate claims − from child labor to unpaid wages − is falling behind.
“We are experiencing and living through a moment in U.S. history where we really can’t characterize this as anything other than a crisis,” Sherer said.
Iowa City Press Citizen
July 22, 2024
However Black unemployment in our state is actually at one of its lowest right now. According to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, the Black unemployment rate in Pennsylvania is about 5.7% compared to when Biden took office, when it was around 16.5%.
WHYY
July 22, 2024
THE CLAIM
“[Worker wages] stagnated for pretty much my entire life until President Donald J. Trump came along. Workers wages went through the roof.”
Economist Josh Bivens of the liberal Economic Policy Institute also told Wisconsin Watch that the 7% figure is the highest for any single presidential term since former President Richard Nixon. But he called the increase under Trump “artificial” because fewer low-wage workers were employed, which drove up the average.
Verify This
July 22, 2024
The bureau’s data shows waiters and waitresses in Washington, D.C., earned an average hourly wage of $24.98 in May 2023, up from $24.42 in May 2022. It’s also higher when compared to before the pandemic when the average wage was $23.83 in May 2019.
But the Economic Policy Institute said servers at high-end restaurants tend to do “exceptionally well,” which can skew the average wage. The group said the median wage, which is significantly lower, “is indicative of significant wage inequality among district waitstaff.”
WBEZ 91.5 Chicago
July 22, 2024
Despite some shrinkage in the racial wage gap over the last six years, the median Black worker still earns considerably less than his White counterparts, the New York Times reports. And though the gender gap has narrowed some since the movements of the 60s, recent data demonstrates little real improvement, reports the Economic Policy Institute.
North Dallas Gazette
July 22, 2024
The average CEO now brings in over 300 times the average worker’s pay according to the Economic Policy Institute. All of which begs the question, should this level of unbridled wealth even exist? In her new book, “Limitarianism, The Case against Extreme Wealth,” Ingrid Robeyns argues strongly that it shouldn’t.
USA Today
July 22, 2024
The data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that annual wages for the top 1% in 2021 in the U.S. reached $819,324 on average. Those considered to be in the top 0.1% earned an average of $3,312,693 annually.
Meanwhile, those in the bottom 90% earned an average income of $36,571 annually, EPI data showed.
FOX 29 Philadelphia
July 22, 2024
Home health aides don’t earn high wages. A 2022 Economic Policy Institute report shows that even in the highest-paying states, wages for home health aides are under $18 an hour. That leads to significant churn in the home health aide labor market, which can exacerbate this public health issue.
Tech Target
July 22, 2024
[Trump] reshaped the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor law and investigates unfair labor practices. Led by a Trump appointee, the NLRB made what the Economic Policy Institute described as an “unprecedented” number of decisions “overturning existing worker protections.” The rulings constrained employees’ ability to form unions, organize at the workplace, and bargain with management.
Mother Jones
July 22, 2024
“Immigrants are not hurting U.S. workers,” says Daniel Costa, the director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute. “In fact, they’re helping in terms of job growth.” Their contributions are “one of the main reasons” the economy avoided a recession in 2023, says Costa. They are also critical for the future of the country.
In These Times
July 22, 2024
A July 1, 2024, article from the Economic Policy Institute (“EPI”) (prior to New Hampshire’s July 3rd enactment of the measure) contains the following graphic:
The EPI article also notes:
“While becoming law in 25 states is critically important, the bill still has a long way to go to protect everyone. More than 10 states have considered CROWN Act bills in the past few years but failed to pass them, including Florida, New Hampshire, and Ohio.”
JD Supra
July 22, 2024
“We want them to get work experience, but we want it to be a positive experience that doesn’t set them up for potentially missing school, or I mean, worst case scenario, suffering a disabling injury that’s going to affect them for the rest of their lives,” Jen Sherer from the Economic Policy Institute said.
Iowa News Now
July 22, 2024
”We really can’t characterize this as anything other than a crisis”, said Jen Scheer, senior state policy coordinator for the economic policy institute.
She says child labor laws enacted last year in Iowa are violating the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. ”Those provisions that were included in the 2023 Iowa law… are in direct conflict with federal law.”
KCRG (Iowa)
July 22, 2024
For first-time homebuyers, “it’s almost as if the ladder has been kicked away,” said Kyle Moore, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
In effect, non-homeowners feel shut out of America’s most potent wealth-creation vehicle.
USA Today
July 22, 2024
Crain's New York
July 22, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently updated a decade-long study that shows the American economy overall actually does better historically when a Democrat is in the White House:
Racine County Eye
July 22, 2024
That’s because recreation-dependent counties tend to have higher-than-average costs of living compared to other rural counties. In 2023, the average household income needed to support a family of four in rural recreation communities was $97,800, compared to $88,900 in other rural counties, according to a dataset compiled by the Economic Policy Institute.
Daily Yonder
July 22, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute found that realized equity compensation made up more than 81 percent of total average realized CEO pay at big corporations in 2022.
Inequality.org
July 22, 2024
Adopting this tax policy may also result in employers resisting wage hikes, using the workers’ new tax benefit as an excuse to keep pay stagnant, said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute. Businesses also could adopt a tipping model that would move their workers into a lower-wage category, cutting their labor costs, she added.
Bloomberg Law
July 22, 2024