California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program (CSC) will cover workers in California who don’t currently have access to formal retirement savings via their work. “I’m a big fan,” says Monique Morrissey, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute who recently testified before Congress on retirement security. “It’s probably the farthest along of all the retirement-reform ideas in terms of practical implementation.”
Time Magazine
February 18, 2015
How does that really affect economic inequality? I was struck by some numbers from the Economic Policy Institute, reported last week by the Globe’s Evan Horowitz. Those figures tracked income growth in Massachusetts between 2009 and 2012, technically the start of the economic recovery and a period that was heavily influenced by Federal Reserve monetary policy. Among the wealthiest 1 percent of the population, income grew by nearly 47 percent over that period. Income actually shrunk by 1.5 percent for the rest of us.
Boston Globe
February 18, 2015
The liberal Economic Policy Institute estimates that 3.5 million more workers would become eligible for overtime pay if the threshold were raised to $42,000. And 6.1 million workers would qualify if the threshold approaches $52,000. Advocates for an increase, like EPI and the National Employment Law Project, would like to see the threshold raised to at least $51,168 — or $984 a week.
CNN Money
February 18, 2015
Another expert took issue with the definition of “Hispanic.” Richard Rothstein, an education research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, previously told us that it’s a meaningless category for educational purposes. “Florida’s ‘Hispanics’ are not comparable to ‘Hispanics’ in other states because Florida’s include a larger proportion of middle-class Cubans, and a smaller proportion of lower-class Mexicans. Without knowing anything else, you would expect middle-class Cubans to perform at a higher level than lower-class Mexicans, because of the literacy levels at home, if for no other reason.”
Politifact
February 18, 2015
According to Economic Policy Institute, the North American Free Trade Act cost U.S. workers almost 700,000 jobs, thereby pushing down American wages.
Huffington Post
February 18, 2015
The above chart shows growth in hourly compensation since 1948 as compared with growth in productivity for non-supervisory employees in the private sector. Increased productivity — output per worker per time period — is what drives economic growth and raises living standards. The data was collected and analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute.
Wall Street Journal
February 13, 2015
Low-wage workers often don’t get paid all they should, a widespread practice called “wage theft,” said Ross Eisenbrey, a lawyer and vice president with the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., that focuses on wage-equity issues.
“It’s pressure from the top all the way down to squeeze labor costs,” he said. He said he has seen interviews of managers saying, “We’re given a budget, but there’s more work we have to do than we can pay for.” Penalties are minimal. If caught, employers face a fine of just $1,100, Eisenbrey said. “And they write that off as a cost of business.”
The Denver Post
February 13, 2015
Let’s face it, America’s tax system is a mess and is considered by most to be unfair. With justification, tax reform has been a major topic of policymaker’s conversations throughout the Obama administration. Policymakers and policy analysts, however, generally look back to the last successful tax reform effort in 1986 to get ideas on what makes for successful tax reform. The conclusion all too many have drawn is successful tax reform requires revenue neutrality—reducing tax rates and broadening the tax base. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has advocated for revenue neutral tax reform (which may be a positive step for a member of a party that generally embraces unfunded tax cuts)—it is one of his seven guiding principles for comprehensive tax reform. And President Obama is once again calling for revenue neutral business tax reform in his fiscal year 2016 budget proposal.
The Hill
February 12, 2015
The top 1 percent of households in Massachusetts now control as much income as they did in the Roaring Twenties, according to a new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute. What is more, every bit of growth we’ve eked out in the past few years has gone directly to that same 1 percent.
Boston Globe
February 12, 2015
Eliminating the hodgepodge of local laws is a common refrain for advocates of statewide preemption laws, says Gordon Lafer, an associate professor at the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center. That was the rationale for a law that Florida Governor Rick Scott signed in June 2013. The bill, which had the support of Walt Disney World, Darden Restaurants, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, “fosters statewide uniformity, consistency, and predictability in Florida’s employer-employee relationships,” Scott said in a statement at the time. “What gets said is, ‘We shouldn’t have this mish-mosh of different laws; we want a state standard, and the state standard should be nothing,’” Lafer says.
Fortune
February 12, 2015