Media clips
-
Stagnating tipped wages lead to other inequalities, according to a report released this month from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Tipped workers are more likely to be in poverty and on government services than other workers. The majority of tipped workers are female and over 25 years old.
When adjusting wages for minimum wage, the situation is more poignant.
“There are certain places where tipped workers are doing quite well,” according to David Cooper, an economic analyst at EPI. “It’s wages at diners in rural Pennsylvania that are really suffering from this policy.”
Wall Street Journal July 24, 2014 -
Dana Katz, 27, is watching peers from Pennsylvania State University’s School of Hospitality Management in State College pay the price for graduating with the Class of 2009.
“I have a lot of friends, countless kids who I graduated with, who should have been put into a better place out of school because they were really promising, but there was nothing available,” said Katz, who works at Kimpton Hotels in Washington as an assistant director of finance. “Kids got put into a bad place to start, and it’s been reflected in their career path.”
Job-market healing is under way, so the Class of 2014 may fare better than their predecessors. Today’s graduates “are entering into a stronger labor market, full stop,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Bloomberg July 24, 2014 -
Studies have shown increased immigration is a windfall mainly for the rich. The more immigrants enter the country, the bigger the pool of labor to choose from. That’s great for top executives and anyone who owns a lot of capital, as the rise in labor supply, all else equal, tends to depress wages and therefore drive up profits and share prices. Needless to say, having more workers typically doesn’t bode well for those competing with immigrant labor, especially when unemployment is high amid a slow growing economy.
This affects both skilled and unskilled workers. The H-1B visa program that sets quotas for immigrants in “specialty occupations” has had a major wage-depressing and job-displacing effect on highly educated and skilled native-born tech workers, according to a 2013 report by the Economic Policy Institute.
Fortune July 22, 2014 -
Year over year, the states with the largest employment increases are Texas, up 371,000 jobs; California, with 356,400 more jobs; and Florida, which is ahead 237,500.
California’s unusual distinction — it’s a leader in both job gains and one of the states with the highest unemployment rates — shows how deep a hole the U.S. sank into economically in the last recession. When you lose a lot of jobs, it’s easier to show big gains on the way back, says David Cooper, of the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
By EPI’s analysis, 31 states still aren’t back to the employment levels they had when the recession started in December 2007. And given the growth in population since then, a healthy economy should have added 6.5 million jobs by now on top of regaining all the lost jobs, Cooper says.
“Things are getting better, but it’s taken so long for us to get there we can’t celebrate that much,” Cooper says.
USA Today July 22, 2014 -
Although California has now recovered all the jobs lost during the recession, economists caution that it is more of a symbolic milestone. As the state’s population grows, more people are entering the workforce. In July 2007, for instance, the state’s unemployment was far lower — at 5.4%.”It may have some psychological effect, but it’s an economically meaningless benchmark,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Los Angeles Times July 22, 2014 -
Domestic workers, including homecare workers, have long struggled to gain the legal benefits and protections that other workers in our society enjoy. It wasn’t until the 1970s that most domestic workers were finally covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which offers overtime protections and a minimum wage. Even so, one category of domestic worker was exempted from the FLSA: workers who provide “companionship services,” a group that includes homecare workers. Precisely because the traditional New Deal–era legislation offered no remedies to this group of workers, they need unions to fight for their rights. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Ross Eisenbrey, because of union contracts, “this almost entirely female workforce has made huge improvements in wages and benefits, in training, and in respect in the states that provide for collective bargaining.” But those gains are seriously threatened by the actions the court took in Harris.
The Nation July 18, 2014 -
As graduation parties wrap up and summer stretches on, college and high school grads may be throwing themselves into the job search.
The task before them is not an easy one.
There’s plenty of competition, for one. In addition to job seekers, the number of “missing workers” younger than 25 — individuals who would like to work but who have dropped out of the labor force for lack of opportunities — is near 1 million.
While that’s down from the peak of 1.72 million a few years ago, it’s more than three times as many as when the recession began in 2007, according to a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute.
“Things have been so weak for so long that there’s this big pool of people who are out of the workforce,” said Heidi Shierholz, a labor market economist at EPI who co-wrote the study.
Chicago Tribune July 18, 2014 -
1. A four-year degree is an increasingly uncertain investment. It still pays big time to get a college degree. According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, the pay gap between those with a four-year degree and those with no college reached an all-time high last year, with degree holders earning more than 1.8 times as much as high-school graduates.
But the income gap between those with some college and a high-school education has remained flat for years. And as the cost of college is increasing faster than inflation, the return on getting just some college is dropping quickly. While we’d like to live in a world where every student has the desire to and is capable of obtaining a four-year degree, this trend will undoubtedly make students on the margin think twice about the expense of college, and will lead many to experiment with cheaper and less labor-intensive forms of training like online courses or vocational school.
Fortune July 18, 2014 -
Long-term unemployment — the portion of those out of work at 27 weeks or longer — has improved to the lowest level in five years, Labor Department data released July 3 show. Yet at 32.8 percent, the rate still far exceeds the 12.8 percent average from 1948 until the start of the last recession.
The long-term jobless rate in 2013 was stuck above pre-recession levels for every education, age, gender, ethnic, occupation and industry group, according to data compiled by Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, which conducts research on the condition of low- and middle-income workers.
Bloomberg July 18, 2014 -
The 10 most endangered jobs – aside from buggy repairmen – all have something to do with paper. They include mail carriers, lumberjacks, printing press operators, and, erm, newspaper reporters.
Only 11% of U.S. workers are eligible for overtime – and workers would benefit from getting more overtime pay, says the Economic Policy Institute.
Nothing says “I love you” like a wedding at McDonald’s. Mickey D’s has hosted about a dozen wedding parties in Singapore and expanded the number of restaurants offering the service to 15 from 3.
USA Today July 18, 2014