Media clips
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Let’s be clear. Some increase in the federal minimum is justified. It’s been at $7.25 since 2009. Inflation has eroded its value 10 percent since then and 24 percent since its peak year of 1968, says the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. But raising it to $15 (a doubling), or even $12 (a two-thirds increase), would be a radical act that front-loads the benefits and back-loads the costs.
The Washington Post August 4, 2015 -
According to the Economic Policy Institute, an increase in the minimum wage would disproportionately benefit people of color, especially Latino workers…
The American Prospect August 4, 2015 -
Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, said Sanders’ remarks reflect a divide — not among progressive reform advocates, but between progressives and business-backed groups like FWD.us. He called the FWD.us criticism of Sanders “hyperbole” aimed at silencing questions about guest worker programs pushed by big business. FWD.us founder Mark Zuckerberg also is founder and CEO of Facebook, which Costa notes lobbied Congress for a larger, more lenient H-1B visa guest worker program in 2013.
The Huffington Post August 4, 2015 -
Opponents of the new emissions plan are calling attention to the jobs in coal and supporting industries that will be lost once the EPA rules go into effect. But a recent Economic Policy Institute analysis indicates that there would be a net gain in employment due to jobs created in the clean-energy and conservation sectors.
In other words, instead of fighting the emissions plan, the governors who oppose it should be putting down their bullhorns and picking up their phones to talk new energy companies into coming to their states to help absorb expected job losses.
Philadelphia Inquirer August 4, 2015 -
New data released by the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI) inadvertently demonstrates why efforts to reduce income inequality are a path to nowhere. Historically, whenever the gap between the nation’s highest and lowest earners declines, it’s the result of economic downturn or recession. Any ideology that views the Great Depression with economic nostalgia is missing the point.
Consider this: The EPI’s data shows the national share of all income held by the top 1 percent of earners rose to around 25 percent in the 1920s, but declined to less than 15 percent in the 1930s.
The Oklahoman August 4, 2015 -
The Economic Policy Institute, which researches labor-force trends, estimates that there are 57,000 men 70 to 74, and 69,000 women 75 and up, who are currently working but would not be in the workforce today if the recession hadn’t hit their savings and earnings so hard. EPI labor economist Elise Gould says that many wealthy households have fully rebounded from the recession as asset values (stocks and high-end homes) have surged back. But for the middle class, income and retirement savings still haven’t recovered.
Marketplace August 4, 2015 -
The share of workers who receive overtime pay has seen big drops over the years. Currently, only workers making below $23,660 per year are eligible for overtime pay. According to the Economic Policy Institute, that is below the poverty threshold for a family of four. This threshold has not been updated since 1975, meaning 4 decades of inflation have caused the share of workers eligible for overtime to gradually decrease. Workers who previously would have received compensation for their extra work are now being shortchanged.
Think Progress August 4, 2015 -
A common reference point in the wage debate is the real—or inflation-adjusted—value of the minimum wage. If the minimum wage had kept pace with price increases since 1968, by 2014 it would have stood at $9.54—about 32 percent higher than its actual level, according to analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank.
According to institute analysis, a federal minimum wage of $12 in 2020 would return the wage floor to about the same position in the overall wage distribution that it had in 1968.
CNBC August 4, 2015 -
In 1994, economists Larry Mishel and Jared Bernstein of the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI) met with the head of President Clinton’s National Economic Council, Robert Rubin. Mishel told that they asked Rubin how the administration planned to increase median wages, a critical failing in the Reagan/Bush years. Rubin replied, “deficit reduction.” He explained how this would reduce interest rates and boost productivity, and that wages would naturally follow.
Mishel and Bernstein pulled out a chart. It showed that, for the prior two decades, increases in productivity had not translated into wage gains for the typical worker. This productivity/wage gap showed that something had changed within the economy, with the benefits of growth concentrating in fewer hands. Rubin looked at the chart and said, “I didn’t know that.”
The Fiscal Times August 4, 2015 -
While it’s unclear how much this might apply to US companies if TiSA is ultimately adopted, Daniel Costa at the think tank EPI says the “Movement of Natural Persons” provisions would likely apply to two multi-year “professional” visas, the L-1, for transferring executive, managerial or special “knowledge” workers within a multinational; and the B-1 for “business visitors” temporarily in the US to, for instance, attend a conference. Under TiSA, writes Costa, companies could more freely use certain visa-based workers. They might then avoid standard “guestworker” rules that require companies to “advertise jobs to U.S. workers, or to hire U.S. workers if they were equally or better qualified for job openings in their own country.”
The Nation July 30, 2015