However, since 2016, eight states, including Alabama, Kentucky and Iowa, have passed laws pre-empting local wage laws, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Reuters | September 2, 2017
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said there is still room for improvement, though, pointing to recent slides in the gains made by young workers and black workers. “When you think about wanting to reach all corners of the labor market, you think about… those people that historically have had elevated unemployment rates,” she said. “Those are the ones that are batted around the most, and those are the ones that stand to gain the most,” she said.
NBC News | September 1, 2017
Workers have a lot less to celebrate on Labor Day this year, in part thanks to a series of state laws passed in recent years that block cities from raising the minimum wage or requiring companies to provide paid sick leave – according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute. Marni von Wilpert, the study’s author, found that when workers organize at the local level to demand better standards, state legislatures have been quick to step in. “We’ve seen a lot more minimum-wage pre-emption laws throughout the country since 2013,” she says. “We’ve had 15 laws by 15 states passed since 2013. And that’s really when these business groups have come out and started to argue for pre-empting cities from doing this.” She’s talking about the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a pro-business group that creates model legislation that can be used across multiple states. ALEC has successfully made the case to lawmakers that operating in a state with a patchwork of different labor regulations makes it hard for businesses to adapt their operations. (whole story)
WXPR | September 1, 2017
Amid growing conversation about millennial workers and their relationships to unions, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently released a report highlighting the impact that collective bargaining can have. Here are three interesting takeaways.
The decline in union membership over the last 20 years may contribute to the lasting impression of these groups as predominantly white, predominantly male, and primarily based in the manufacturing sector. However, per EPI’s report, about 10.6 million of the 16.3 million workers covered by a union contract in the United States in 2016 were women and/or people of color. (whole story)
Refinery29 | September 1, 2017
Earlier this year, the Economic Policy Institute released a report that found that Asian women get paid 88 cents and white non-Hispanic women earn 81 cents for every dollar that non-Hispanic white men get paid. Meanwhile, black women get paid 65 cents and Hispanic women get paid 59 cents for every dollar earned by a white man. The report was released in time for this year’s International Women’s Day when women across the U.S. gathered to call for equal pay.
Marketplace | September 1, 2017
“I think it’s disappointing, but not unexpected,” Celine McNicholas, a labor lawyer for the Economic Policy Institute, told Bloomberg BNA. McNicholas was a National Labor Relations Board official in the Obama administration. McNicholas said the ruling was based on “flawed logic.”
Bloomberg BNA | September 1, 2017
Liberal groups said the change was needed. “For years, as the salary threshold was eroded by inflation and congressional inaction, businesses have used the imprecision of the duties test to avoid paying overtime to low-level employees who they wrongly classify as managers or executives,” said Celine McNicholas, labor counsel for the Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Examiner | September 1, 2017
“It’s a bit misleading because our corporate tax code is riddled with loopholes and what corporations pay is far, far lower — somewhere between 13 and 21 percent,” Hunter Blair, a tax and budget analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told me. “When you get down to specific companies, sometimes they pay 3, 4, 5 percent,” he added
VOX | August 31, 2017
IPS’ findings are consistent with academic research on corporate taxes and jobs. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors saw “little evidence that corporate tax cuts boost economic activity, unless implemented during recessions.” The Economic Policy Institute could summon no data showing corporate tax cuts moving the needle; instead, they said, it would “primarily benefit a small number of high-income capital owners.”
The Nation | August 31, 2017
Some consumer advocates estimate the wait could result in tangible losses for investors. The Economic Policy Institute said that an additional 18-month delay could cost retirement savers an additional $10.9 billion dollars over the next 30 years because of the longer timeframe in which they’d potentially be getting conflicted advice.
Money | August 31, 2017
A study by the Economic Policy Institute estimates that Arizona retirement savers would lose out on $235 million of returns over the next 30 years as the result of bad advice given during the 18-month delay on the fiduciary rule. The Trump administration has said the rule places an unnecessary burden on financial advisers and makes them less willing to take on small-dollar investors. Meanwhile, Trump on Tuesday moved against an Obama-era equal-pay measure that was supposed to go into effect on Friday. The Office of Management and Budget announced it will not require companies to report data on how much various classes of workers are compensated. Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of economic policy at the Economic Policy Institute, said this shows that the president is not concerned with the persistent wage gap for women and minorities. “One of the key things that has contributed to unequal pay is just a lack of transparency – people not actually knowing what people in their group are paid relative to other groups,” Shierholz said.
Public News Service | August 31, 2017
But David Cooper, senior analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, says there are several ways for businesses to off-set the cost of a wage increase. Cooper says that, when wages are higher, employee turnover rates go down. This saves money on recruitment and training costs. Higher wages often result in a boost in productivity, he says. And these same workers are the most likely consumers to go out and spend, driving more business activity. And if that’s not enough? “Because labor, especially low-wage labor, is just a portion of businesses’ overall operating costs, most businesses are able to absorb those additional labor costs with very modest price increases,” Cooper said. Cooper says some studies have found a minimum wage increase of 10 per cent would require a 0.6 per cent increase in menu prices at fast food restaurants.
Northern Public Radio | August 31, 2017
“The H-1B by definition is supposed to be for a specialty occupation,” said Ron Hira, a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington. “But over the years, that got watered down.” In fiscal year 2015, 41 percent of all approved H-1B applications were at a Level 1 wage, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
San Francisco Chronicle | August 31, 2017
Minimum-wage laws are among the most common preemption laws. As the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute writes in a report released this weekend, 25 states have passed laws preempting local salary increases since 1999, more than half of them in the last five years.
The Atlantic | August 30, 2017
The picture is not pretty for minimum wage workers, many of whom work in the nonprofit sector and in the service industry. Childcare workers, domestic workers, nursing home aides, and fast food employees often face the most impact from this kind of back-and-forth between city and state government. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based research nonprofit, a report released Saturday said that Republican-controlled state legislatures increasingly use pre-emption laws to supersede local law. The report pointed to 33 labor and employment pre-emption laws passed by state governments since 2010. Examples from this report were cited by the Washington Post:
Nonprofit Quarterly | August 30, 2017
We will continue to track these developments (and our work is made much easier by the invaluable Perkins Project run by the Economic Policy Institute). It is, at this point, no great insight to recognize Trump’s hypocrisy. But on Labor Day, it is nevertheless essential to document the damage his administration is doing to the American workforce.
The Washington Post | August 30, 2017
Imagine what you’d do with a million dollars. What about $10 million, roughly the annual salary of a CEO like Apple’s Tim Cook? Then think: What would you do with $89 million, the value of company stock a Monday SEC filing showed Cook has just received — or the more than $40 million he’s cashed in, according to CNNMoney? Whether or not Cook eventually gives away most of his wealth to charity, as he has pledged to in the past, his compensation figures remain staggering. And he’s not alone among CEOs, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute, which found that CEOs at the 350 largest U.S. companies made 271 times what the average employee earned in 2016. These figures, shown in context over time below, demonstrate how just how stark income inequality has grown between top-earning executives and rank-and-file workers. “CEO compensation is still near or at historic highs,” EPI research assistant Jessica Schieder told Mic in an email. (whole story)
Mic | August 30, 2017
Fifteen states passed bills to pre-empt labor legislation between January 2016 and July 2017, according to a report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio enacted legislation to pre-empt minimum wage hikes. The report noted that Missouri’s pre-emption law, which takes effect today, will stop St. Louis from enacting 2015 legislation that raised the city’s minimum wage to $11 by 2018. Arkansas, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina enacted legislation to pre-empt paid leave bills. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Tennessee enacted legislation to pre-empt predictable scheduling legislation. Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin enacted legislation to pre-empt laws that require the use of project labor agreements and the payment of prevailing wage to workers on public construction projects.
Politico | August 29, 2017
Missouri is not alone. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute says that such preemption laws have been in use since 2010, when Republicans began to witness successful campaigns to raise wages across the nation. In the past year and a half, 15 states have passed laws preempting advances in minimum wage and other labor standards like paid leave and fair scheduling laws, a rate that EPI calls “unprecedented.”
Splinter News | August 29, 2017
Since the start of 2016, 15 states have passed 27 laws pre-empting local labor standards, according a study released Monday by the liberal Economic Policy Institute. That is thanks to the GOP’s strong advantage in statehouses across the country. Currently, the GOP controls 33 governorships and 67 of the 98 partisan legislative chambers. In 24 states, Republicans control the governor’s office and both state legislative chambers. “[C]onservative state legislatures are now using pre-emption to eliminate the authority of a lower level of government to regulate a certain issue. In practice, these laws are being used to strip authority from local governments who seek to increase protections for workers; the laws do so by prohibiting these local governments from increasing their labor/employment standards above the state floor,” said Marni von Wilpert, EPI’s associate labor counsel.
The Washington Examiner | August 29, 2017
State legislatures are increasingly using preemption laws to block local-level measures to set higher minimum-wage levels, require paid sick leave and other workplace ordinances, according to a study by a left-leaning think tank. Fifteen states have passed 27 laws to preempt local labor and employment standards since the beginning of 2016, the Economic Policy Institute said in a study released on Saturday. States had passed 49 such laws in the previous 20 years, the report said. (Appears to be whole story, but pay walled)
Reuters | August 29, 2017
The racial divide in Kansas City and across the U.S. is not just the result of individual prejudice, and developers like J.C. Nichols. We’ll discuss this and more, with author Richard Rothstein, who’s coming to Kansas City soon to talk about his new book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.
Plus, is Kansas City’s art scene homogenous? One outgoing artist weighs in.
Guests:
KCUR | August 29, 2017
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said that doesn’t mean every young American is a fleeting hire. At the start of their careers, people are still figuring out what they like and what they’re good at, she said. And in a healthy economy, a job change generally leads to higher wages. “There is this narrative that millennials are jumping around a lot,” Shierholz said. “But moving around at the beginning of your career is not a new story. There’s more turnover than most people realize in the day-to-day labor market.” … In the meantime, the EPI’s Shierholz said, people should remember that while quitting is tough on employers, it can be great for workers. Workers voluntarily leaving jobs signifies to economists that they’re chasing better opportunities. “It feels like every generation gets pegged with an unflattering narrative when they’re young,” she said.
The Washington Post | August 28, 2017
The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based research nonprofit, said in a report released Saturday that Republican-controlled state legislatures increasingly use pre-emption laws to supersede local law. The institute cited 33 labor and employment pre-emption laws passed by state governments since 2010. … Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have minimum wage rates above the U.S. minimum, according to Economic Policy Institute data.
The Associated Press | August 28, 2017
“As far as I can determine, it’s an empty threat,” Rob Scott, director of trade research for the Economic Policy Institute, told me, noting that the president has recently made other idle threats about military action against North Korea and not abiding by certain NATO requirements. “He’s generated a problem of credibility by making threats that he walks back.”
Vice News | August 28, 2017
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute takes a deep look at the role and importance of unions as the key avenue for working people to come together and negotiate for an expansion of their rights and freedoms. Here are nine things you need to know about the state of the labor movement in 2017. (whole story)
AFL-CIO Blog | August 28, 2017
The liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute recently released a report that encouraged reform of the program over expansion. It cited instances in which the seasonal workers have been illegally underpaid or exploited.
CNN Money | August 25, 2017
Half of the jobs in America currently pay less than $18 an hour, according to Labor Department data. That’s about $37,000 a year if someone works full-time. Forty percent of jobs in the country pay less than $15.50, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. There’s always debate about what constitutes a “good-paying job,” but it’s notable that manufacturing jobs, which President Trump campaigned on bringing back, pay over $20.50 an hour, on average.
The Washington Post | August 25, 2017
You’ve heard the myth of the self-made man: If you cultivate a positive attitude and work hard, you can start out with nothing and still become the next billionaire. What’s more appealing than the belief in complete self-sufficiency? Yet, reality is otherwise. As a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) points out, American workers have always done better for themselves and their families when they join together in strong unions. It’s through collective bargaining that they have a voice on the job and greater control over their lives and their futures. “Through unions, people join together to strive for improvements at the place where they spend a large portion of their waking hours: work,” the report reads. (whole story)
AFSCME | August 25, 2017
A new report on the state of America’s unions offers a fresh look at who makes up the core of the labor movement — and it’s not the manufacturing base that Donald Trump has been courting. In a deep dive into unions published Thursday, the Economic Policy Institute puts a special focus on the role collective bargaining plays in the labor market. Over the last few decades, America has seen an uptick in productivity but a stagnation in wages for all but those at the very top — and the decline of collectively bargained union contracts is one reason U.S. workers’ earnings are being hollowed out, EPI said. (whole story)
New York Daily News | August 25, 2017