Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, described much of Trump’s proposal as “horrible stuff.” But he said his suggestion to increase the minimum wage for foreign workers as something that could and should be done. “It pains me to say, but that’s like the one thing that is a legitimate proposal in there that is workable and people on both sides have hope for,” Costa said.
McClatchy
August 21, 2015
Daniel Costa, of the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute, says data doesn’t support much of Trump’s rhetoric about unskilled immigrants driving down wages. But there is little doubt that corporations have abused the H-1B visa program, which gives corporations enormous economic bargaining power over workers whose immigration status they effectively control. The H-1B is good for an initial, three-year term and can be renewed for an additional three years. But there is no direct path from the visa to permanent residence, or “green card,” status. “Immigrants aren’t pushing down wages, but corporations are using temporary ‘nonimmigrant’ guestworker programs to push down wages,” Costa told IBTimes.
International Business Times
August 21, 2015
That’s because the problem is almost unfathomably large. In a report titled “The Unfinished March,” the Economic Policy Institute found that school segregation, black unemployment, lack of access to fair housing and living wages, and abysmal African American household wealth remain at essentially the same levels of disparity today as they did in 1963, when the March on Washington occurred.
The Washington Post
August 21, 2015
The figures come from an NBC analysis of data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that advocates for economic policies that benefit low- and middle-income workers. The EPI data comes from its family budget calculator, which measures “the income a family needs in order to attain a secure yet modest living standard.” The calculator adds the cost of necessities like housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and taxes for more than 600 U.S. metropolitan areas to come up with its totals, which can be adjusted by family size.
NBC News
August 20, 2015
A growing number of Americans work in jobs with highly volatile schedules. A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute finds that as many as 17 percent of workers experience unstable work schedules, including irregular, on-call, split and rotating shifts.
Washington Monthly
August 20, 2015
Following China’s devaluation of the yuan last week, AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director Bill Samuel warned Congress of the deleterious impact of currency manipulation on U.S. employment, citing statistics from the liberal Economic Policy Institute claiming that ending currency manipulation would create 5.8 million jobs.
Politico
August 20, 2015
In 1979, people were working for 1,687 hours a year. By 2013, that figure had jumped to an average of 1,836 hours a year, according to an analysis of government data by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Overall, men are working just 2% longer hours than they did in 1979. But women’s annual hours have gone up almost 20%, according to the Economic Policy Institute analysis.
“People want to work and when they can, they do work,” says Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. He notes that lower income Americans tend to have less education and have a harder time finding jobs.
CNN Money
August 19, 2015
The AFL-CIO argues that currency manipulation costs U.S. jobs, citing a report from the Economic Policy Institute that found ending the practice could create 5.8 million new jobs in the United States.
The Hill
August 19, 2015
The 84-page report by the Center for Popular Democracy and the Economic Policy Institute shows that Texas’ average jobless rate was 5 percent in 2014, but it was 9.5 percent for blacks. In the Dallas metro area, the average rate was 5.1 percent last year, but it was 9.6 percent for blacks. Nationally, the black jobless rate was 10.3 percent, compared with a national average of 6.2 percent.
Dallas Morning News
August 19, 2015
Corporate executives predictably condemn the rule, saying it would stigmatize companies with large pay disparities between the boss and other employees. That’s the point: The ratio between CEO pay and average worker pay has ballooned in the past few decades, despite gains in employee productivity. CEOs now make nearly 300 times as much as average workers, compared to 30 times in 1978, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
August 19, 2015