Progressives wouldn’t accept moderate Cabinet picks, said Thea Lee, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
“The next two years are really a chance for Joe Biden, who really is a working-class champion, to deliver on the labor front,” Lee said. “He’s got a very short window to make his case to the American people; he can’t do that with a bunch of timid, retread Wall Street corporate Democrats.”
Bloomberg Law
November 9, 2020
In fact, one left-leaning think tank, the Economic Policy Institute, noted Black and African-American unemployment is still higher than total unemployment ever was in the Great Recession, when it peaked at 10% in October 2009. (Black and African-American unemployment was as high as 16.8% in both the Great Recession and the current pandemic-triggered recession.)
The Balance
November 9, 2020
A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that in 2019, CEOs at the top 350 businesses in the US “earn[ed] 320 times as much as a typical worker,” which is “up from 293-to-1 in 2018 and a big increase from 21-to-1 in 1965 and 61-to-1 in 1989.” Those figures are based on a measure of CEO pay that “counts stock awards when vested and stock options when cashed in rather than when granted.” The average CEO salary for those 350 firms was $21.3 million.
Ars Technica
November 9, 2020
Workers’ health insurance premiums are rising much faster than wages. Source: Economic Policy Institute
Jacobin
November 9, 2020
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said at this rate it will take years for the economy to fully recover. She noted long-term unemployment is on the rise and families struggling to stay afloat aren’t getting any relief from Washington.
“As the winter approaches and Covid-19 cases continue to rise, millions of people across the country will be left out in the cold,” she wrote. “Unlike his predecessor, the incoming Biden administration will inherit a devastated labor market that will need considerable relief and stimulus—quickly.”
Courthouse News
November 9, 2020
The latest decision to nix the agency’s previous lottery-based method of selecting visa petitions is an attempt to address an issue that observers of the H-1B program have previously highlighted. That is, the H-1B program’s prevailing wage levels mean workers can hire foreign talent at prices that are “significantly lower” than local median salaries for certain occupations, according to a May analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. The organization found, for instance, that three-fifths of 2019 H-1B jobs were certified at the two lowest prevailing wage levels.
CIO Dive
November 9, 2020
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said the number of job gains last month can “look huge in a historical context, but it’s misleading to look at those numbers in isolation.”
“I think it’s important to look at the hole that we still have, and how long it might take to fill that gap at that pace,” she said. “And what it means is that a full recovery is years away.”
In March and April, the U.S. economy lost some 22 million jobs.
ABC News
November 9, 2020
About a third of jobless Americans are now long-term unemployed, without a job and actively looking for six months or longer, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
“That is a devastating number,” she said. “As this drags on, I expect those numbers to reach the levels we saw in the Great Recession.”
Marketplace
November 9, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning research group, estimates that more than 30 million workers have lost jobs or had their hours or pay reduced in the coronavirus-related downturn.
New York Times
November 9, 2020
Daniel Costa, an immigration policy expert at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the index preferred by the Trump administration might produce bigger increases for some higher-skilled workers on farms. But the vast majority of guest workers would see smaller wages than they would have under the current system, hence the “transfer payments” going to employers.
In an analysis, Costa found that fieldworkers’ wages rose an average of 3.6% each year between 2010 and 2019 based on the survey; under the index proposed in the new rule, they would have risen at an annual rate of just 2.3%.
Over time, Costa said, the impact could be significant. The fact that guest workers would receive smaller pay hikes could soften wage increases for U.S. workers as well. The change would also allow farms to advertise lower pay than they would have under the survey, making the positions less attractive to U.S. workers.
Huffpost
November 9, 2020
Supporters of Amendment 2 say the increase gives workers fair pay for their hard work, a chance to save for unexpected expenses or time off, and the ability to put more money into the local economy. An economist with the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute says that gradually increasing the minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would be good for businesses, employees, and the economy. Higher wages would also reduce reliance on food stamps and other forms of government financial assistance, supporters say.
Miami New Times
November 6, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, said the colder months could mean less outdoor dining and subsequent cuts to food service staff at a time when there are already millions more unemployed job-seekers than positions available in the U.S.
San Francisco Chronicle
November 6, 2020
However, as important as savings may be, many Americans simply aren’t making it happen. One study from GOBankingRates showed that 57% of the 8,000 people it polled had under $1,000 in savings and 39% had nothing saved at all. And, according to the Economic Policy Institute, almost half of American families have nothing in retirement savings.
The Daily News
November 6, 2020
The sum total of all this? Heidi Shierholz, Policy Director for the Economic Policy Institute, who also objected, calculated workers would lose at least $3.3 billion each year in overtime and minimum wages and that Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers comp would take a combined $750 million hit.
People’s World
November 6, 2020
Even before Newcomb came aboard, one of the issues facing the school was fair pay. Teaching faculty at the OTS are hourly workers. The highest earners among them receive an average of $45.30 per hour per group class and $37.30 per hour for teaching privately. Those numbers represent 21 percent and 19 percent increases, respectively, since 2010. Yet according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, the average increase in hourly earnings for private employees during the same time period is 32 percent. The teachers have not had a pay raise since January 2018.
Chicago Reader
November 6, 2020
“The primary obstacle to a higher minimum wage throughout the country is Republican control of legislatures,” said David Cooper, senior economic analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank.
“Any time this question is put before voters, they overwhelming say they want a higher minimum wage,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation
Reuters
November 6, 2020
By the numbers: Expect 5.3 million workers to lose their jobs by the end of 2021 if state and local governments don’t get a bailout, per the Economic Policy Institute.
Those jobs are in dense urban centers — the engine of the national economy. If that engines start to sputter, the whole country is likely to fall into a recession.
McConnell and the Republicans are convinced that state and local governments are simply using the coronavirus as an excuse to get bailed out of their overspending ways. There’s no way McConnell will finance a local-government rescue via a Biden-backed spending bill.
Axios
November 6, 2020
“Last week was the 33rd straight week total initial” jobless benefit “claims were far greater than the worst week of the Great Recession,” Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz commented.
People’s World
November 6, 2020
San Francisco voters embraced this tax at a time when CEO compensation is surging. A study published by the Economic Policy Institute found that chief executive compensation rose 14 percent in 2019 to $21.3 million. Chief executives now earn 320 times as much as a typical worker.
NBC News
November 6, 2020
Unprecedented conditions: Eight months after the pandemic began to tear through the U.S. economy, layoffs – which are roughly in line with new unemployment filings – are still at historically high levels. “Last week was the 33rd straight week total initial claims were far greater than the worst week of the Great Recession,” said Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute.
The Fiscal Times
November 6, 2020
Terri Gerstein of the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and Economic Policy Institute told CNN Business that the result will “leave thousands of California workers in a precarious and perilous position.” Companies like Uber, meanwhile, are now confident they can win labor battles in other states, too.
CNN
November 6, 2020
A 2018 Economic Policy Institute study, which used Uber administrative data, showed that after calculating Uber’s commissions, fees, a driver’s vehicle expenses, and the cost of a modest health insurance package, Uber drivers earn on average $9.21 or less. That’s slightly above the national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which has not changed in a decade.
Salon
November 6, 2020
“The primary obstacle to a higher minimum wage throughout the country is Republican control of legislatures,” said David Cooper, senior economic analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank.
“Any time this question is put before voters, they overwhelming say they want a higher minimum wage,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation
Reuters
November 6, 2020
By the numbers: Expect 5.3 million workers to lose their jobs by the end of 2021 if state and local governments don’t get a bailout, per the Economic Policy Institute.
Those jobs are in dense urban centers — the engine of the national economy. If that engines start to sputter, the whole country is likely to fall into a recession.
McConnell and the Republicans are convinced that state and local governments are simply using the coronavirus as an excuse to get bailed out of their overspending ways. There’s no way McConnell will finance a local-government rescue via a Biden-backed spending bill.
Axios
November 6, 2020
“Last week was the 33rd straight week total initial” jobless benefit “claims were far greater than the worst week of the Great Recession,” Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz commented.
People’s World
November 6, 2020
Unprecedented conditions: Eight months after the pandemic began to tear through the U.S. economy, layoffs – which are roughly in line with new unemployment filings – are still at historically high levels. “Last week was the 33rd straight week total initial claims were far greater than the worst week of the Great Recession,” said Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute.
The Fiscal Times
November 6, 2020
San Francisco voters embraced this tax at a time when CEO compensation is surging. A study published by the Economic Policy Institute found that chief executive compensation rose 14 percent in 2019 to $21.3 million. Chief executives now earn 320 times as much as a typical worker.
NBC News
November 6, 2020