Media clips
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According to an analysis of Census data by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, these pay increases in 13 states will generate more than $619 million in new economic growth in 2014, helping support the creation of 4,600 new full-time jobs as businesses expand to meet increased consumer demand. A report last year profiling a Washington state McDonald’s franchise owner shows how this works on the ground: The franchisee chose to rebuild and expand his restaurant in Newport, Wash., instead of moving just across the street to Idaho, where the minimum wage is roughly $2 lower. The strong consumer demand his business was enjoying enabled him to continue to expand and employ more workers, even at higher wages.
Roll Call January 10, 2014 -
Four states have rolled back child labor restrictions over the past two years, political economist and University of Oregon Professor Gordon Lafer wrote in an expansive fall paper looking at state wage and labor laws and released by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank focused on research related to low- and middle-income workers. (Disclaimer: The author moderated a panel at which the paper was unveiled.)
The Washington Post January 10, 2014 -
An evaluation last year by the economist Henry M. Levin, a co-director of Teachers College, Columbia University’s Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education, and Emma García, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., concludes that although ASAP isn’t cheap — the program costs, on average, $3,900 per student each year — it’s a solid investment for New York City’s taxpayers. Dr. Levin and Dr. García calculate that the total lifetime benefits — from increased tax revenues as well as savings in crime, welfare and health costs — are a whopping $205,514 per associate degree graduate.
The New York Times January 10, 2014 -
If you’re CEO of one of America’s top-selling 350 firms, pay is higher still. Compensation in 2012 averaged $14 million for that group, including the value of exercised stock options, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-leaning research group. That’s 273 times the pay of a typical worker, up from CEO pay that averaged 29 times worker wages in 1978.
Christian Science Monitor January 10, 2014 -
The Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens says extending unemployment benefits since mid-2008 has kicked in $60B/yr to the U.S. economy and would add 310,000 jobs in 2014.
Reuters January 10, 2014 -
“Making them jump through more hoops will definitely increase administrative costs, but it’s not going to generate more jobs,” Economic Policy Institute economist Heidi Shierholz countered in a Tuesday interview with Salon. “Unless he’s looking at it as a jobs program to hire more public sector workers.”
Shierholz, a former University of Toronto professor now at the progressive Economic Policy Institute, panned several of the right’s other diagnoses and prognoses for the unemployed. A condensed and edited version of our conversation follows.
Some of the same Republican senators whose votes were necessary for unemployment extension to move forward Tuesday are implying they could still vote against final cloture if it isn’t offset with cuts. Is insisting on budget cuts to “offset” the cost of unemployment extension good policy?
It isn’t in this context. And I say that sort of carefully. Because if we were at full employment, and the economy was humming along, and fully utilizing all its potential, then if you’re going to spend a big chunk of money, you might want to think about offsetting it, because the economy doesn’t need any more demand.
We are so far away from that situation that this is exactly the kind of time where you do not have to worry about trying to do offsets like that.
Salon January 10, 2014 -
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit policy research group, said the humanitarian argument was key. Those who receive the benefits did nothing wrong, he said, adding that federal labor statistics show that for every job opening, there are three people looking for a job.
But Eisenbrey said the decline in North Carolina’s unemployment rate was mostly because people gave up on their job searches. Looking for work is a condition for receiving the benefits.
He also said that the extra spending from the benefits creates demand for goods and services.
“Economically, there is zero benefit from cutting unemployment insurance, and I see a lot of harm,” he said.
McClatchy January 10, 2014 -
When Massachusetts became the first state to implement universal health coverage in 2006, many residents faced long waits for doctors’ appointments and crowded emergency rooms. Those waits have lessened, but not disappeared. Nonetheless, polls show most residents in Massachusetts approve of the law.
Likewise, the national law will be judged on whether people can find regular doctors and get in to see them when they need them. If enrollees face a protracted period of appointment waits, difficulties finding specialists because of narrow insurance networks, or glitches in insurers getting their information, the law could be seen as failing.
“The goal of health reform is not insurance, but for people to get health care when they need it,” says Elise Gould, director of health policy research at the Economic Policy Institute. “It’s about moving the dial on consumers getting preventive care and getting more compliance with taking prescription drugs and people getting more effective health care.”
The Washington Post January 6, 2014 -
Some non-investors may indirectly benefit from an up market. For example, a pension recipient may be less likely to face benefit cuts thanks to strong returns by a pension fund. And proponents of the so-called “wealth effect” say that a soaring stock market encourages wealthy consumers to spend more, which stimulates the economy.
But overall, the effects of the bull market have likely been minimal for non-investors.
“It just doesn’t have an impact for the vast majority of people,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
CNNMoney January 6, 2014 -
Earlier this year, New Jersey residents voted to raise the state’s minimum wage by $1 to $8.25 per hour. And lawmakers voted to hike the wage by between 25 cents and 75 cents per hour, to $8.70 in Connecticut and $8 in Rhode Island and New York.
Residents in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington will see a higher wage floor due to annual cost of living adjustments.
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, used Census data to estimate that the increases will boost the incomes of 2.5 million low-wage American workers next year.
CNNMoney January 6, 2014