Media clips
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During a long period of full or near-full employment from 1995 to 2000, black unemployment fell as low as 7.3 percent. Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy, notes that wages increased more rapidly during this period for blacks than for whites.
The Washington Post May 14, 2015 -
A recent study from the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan Washington-based think tank that focuses on labor research, found that, even after controlling for a wide range of varying labor market conditions, average overall (union and non-union) wages in “right-to-work” states are about 3 percent lower than in “fair share” states like ours. That means the typical full-time worker in a “right-to-work” state makes $1,558 less each year than the average worker in a state like Illinois.
The Chicago Sun Times May 14, 2015 -
On the other hand, pay has long been flat, even for college grads, so entry level wages, on average, will likely be no better than they were for grads from 15 years ago. The graph in this report by the Economic Policy Institute charts the average hourly wages of young workers, by education (in 2013 dollars). The average for college grads, $17.94, works out to about $36,000 a year.
The New York Times May 13, 2015 -
The liberal wing of the Democratic party has come out swinging against the agreement, with Warren, Senator Harry Reid, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi all voicing opposition. Robert Scott, the director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, told VICE News that the public portions of the TPP point to a deal that could erode US jobs and put downward pressure on US wages.
“Certainly, experience tells us that when we negotiate trade and investment deals — like the Korea deal, like NAFTA, like the agreement to bring China into the WTO — what we’ve experienced is not just growing exports but imports, and as a result the losses of millions of jobs,” Scott said. The TPP could affect the wages of 100 million American workers, costing each an average of about $1,800 per year, Scott said, citing EPI research. “Everybody with a similar skill set, essentially all workers in the domestic economy who don’t have a college degree… could lose $1,800 a year,” he said. “Those are the most salient statistics for most working Americans. That’s why there’s such broad public concern about the effects of these trade deals.”
Vice News May 13, 2015 -
Job prospects for college graduates have been pretty terrible for a long time, said Josh Bivens, research and policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The average young college graduate, between the ages of 21 and 24, makes just under $18/hour, or $36,000 a year, according to new data that EPI is set to release later this month. As an average, that figure is probably skewed a little high, said Bivens. Since 2000, grads have actually seen their pay fall from $18.41 an hour to $17.94, according to the new EPI data. A lot of college graduates wind up “underemployed” in jobs that don’t require a degree, said Bivens. The unemployment rate for young college graduates was 8.5 percent, according to a 2014 report from EPI, but the underemployment rate was nearly double that. “There’s a reason there’s a stereotype of college grads working as baristas in coffee shops,” he said.
The Huffington Post May 13, 2015 -
We’ll look at the white-hot politics of trade as President Obama and Congress go to the mat on the TPP.
On Point May 13, 2015 -
Although the exact extent of wage theft and underpayment nationwide isn’t recorded in any one place, “survey evidence suggests that wage theft is widespread and costs workers billions of dollars a year,” says a September report by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, citing a study of conditions in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The phenomenon extends well beyond big cities. The Economic Policy Institute surveyed federal and local agencies that regulate wage conditions and found that “state departments of labor in 44 states recovered $172 million; state attorneys general in 45 states recovered $14 million; and private attorneys recovered $467 million in wage and hour class action lawsuits.”
CNN May 13, 2015 -
The true costs of goods and services is a secondary issue to stagnant and exploitative wages: The cost of certain goods might go up, but more people would be able to afford them with better compensation. The current price of low-cost goods and services in the United States is low-income, exploited workers living in poverty. But the country as a whole isn’t broke, only its workers are — while corporations and C.E.O.s are richer than ever. The value of the federal minimum wage has declined 24 percent since 1968. If we re-established the relationship between the minimum wage and the overall median wage to its 1968 level, we would raise wages for 35 million people, a full quarter of the workforce.
The situation is even worse for those earning tips, such as nail salon workers. Their pay is set at $2.13 an hour by the federal government. If tips don’t supplement these workers’ paycheck to the regular minimum, they have to ask their employers for the difference. (And good luck with that.)
The New York Times May 12, 2015 -
The impact of the bolder proposal for America’s workforce would be widely felt. According to recent estimates by the Economic Policy Institute, the new wage rate of $12 per hour will boost earnings for some 10 million parents, 21 million women and nearly 18 million workers of color.
CNN May 12, 2015 -
But the Economic Policy Institute points out that this ignores imports, and therefore the ballooning trade deficit, which weighs down economic growth and wages.
Salon May 12, 2015