Media clips

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• Minimal Wages, Minimal Families

  As Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute points out, the median worker’s real hourly compensation (real earnings plus benefits) has stagnated over the last 10 years, and the declining real value of the minimum wage has contributed to increased income inequality.

  The New York Times March 4, 2013
• Should we give visas to immigrants who create startups?

  But critics of existing work visa programs believe that such job-creation estimates are overblown and worry that prospective immigrants would end up gaming Moran’s proposed program. “It’s less of an incentive to start business than find a way to get a green card,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice-president of the Economic Policy Institute. He believes that the assumption that all 75,000 visas will always be filled is “unreasonable,” with concerns that enforcement of the program’s requirements will be lax and that the definition of “full-time employees” hired by these immigrants’ companies will be vague and watered down.

  That said, Eisenbrey acknowledged that, at least in theory, the basic idea of creating more opportunities for immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States is a good one. “It should be done as a sort of pilot program, and we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

  The Washington Post March 4, 2013
• Spending Cuts Signal Austere Future for Domestic Programs

  The result means less money for infrastructure, education, and defense. Deficit reduction has kept the economy below its capacity for several years, said Andrew Fieldhouse, federal budget policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, which favors helping low- and middle-income workers.

  “Timing is everything,” Fieldhouse said. “And if you cut back now, you’re actually going to make it harder to address your long-term challenges because austerity in a depressed economy is particularly damaging.”

  Bloomberg March 1, 2013
• The Jobs Picture Is Far Worse Than It Looks: As in the Great Depression, millions are suffering unemployed—but this time they’re invisible

  Imagine the sense of futility that must overcome people who month after month fill out forms, go for interviews if they are lucky, and end up as they started with nothing to show, because there are approximately 3.3 unemployed workers for every job seeker, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  US News and World Report March 1, 2013
• How the recession turned middle-class jobs into low-wage jobs

  Economists have been debating the underlying causes of this growing divergence for years now. Some, such as Harvard’s Lawrence Katz and Claudia Goldin, argue that new technologies and machines are now displacing mid-wage jobs at the assembly line and elsewhere. Others, such as Larry Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute, point to explicitly political factors, from the decline of labor unions to trade liberalization to the dwindling minimum wage.

  The Washington Post March 1, 2013
• Are Millennials a “Lost Generation”?

  But those who do manage to find jobs are also struggling. Young people with high school degrees have seen their inflation-adjusted wages decline by 11.1%; college graduates have seen a smaller, yet significant, decline of 5.4%, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  Yahoo Finance February 28, 2013
• Unemployment Rate for Hispanics Tops 17% in 5 States

  The Hispanic unemployment rate at the end of 2012 in 13 states significantly exceeded the state rate, with the percentage of jobless Hispanics surpassing 17 percent in five states.

  Overall, the unemployment rates likely will remain high for whites, Latinos, and African-Americans through the year, according to projections by the Economic Policy Institute.

  National Journal February 28, 2013
• Unemployment Report: Legislative Focus Needs To Be On Job Creation, Not Austerity

  Illinois’ 2013 unemployment rate for whites and Hispanics is projected to stay consistent with 2012, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But the rate for African Americans is expected to decrease to 13.9 percent, but still stay above the national average.

  The report suggests “our leaders have gotten sidetracked by potentially harmful calls for deficit reduction” and should instead borrow money to “invest heavily in infrastructure improvements, which create large numbers of jobs and stimulate the economy.”

  “Policymakers need to focus on jobs now, and on deficits only after we have a strong economy,” the report reads. The Washington-based Economic Policy Institute is a non-profit think tank often presenting a liberal viewpoint on economic issues.

  According to the author of the report, Algernon Austin, director of the program on race, ethnicity and economy at the Economic Policy Institute, infrastructure spending has a “big bang for your buck” and would positively stimulate the economy.

  “That means we could put a lot of unemployed construction workers to work right now, and way into the future, infrastructure investments lead to higher productivity, it’s a win-win,” he said. “The borrowing costs are quite low for the government right now, the smart thing at the federal level is to borrow investment for infrastructure, put people back to work and ensure long-term strong economic productivity.”

  Progress Illinois February 28, 2013
• Minimum Wage Proposal Renews Economic Debate

  “So much about our dynamics of income inequality have been about the very top,” said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “This is not going to have a huge impact on that dynamic of the top pulling away.”

  Roll Call February 28, 2013
• Chamber study claims to debunk EPA figures on job-creating regulations

  But Josh Bivens, director of research and policy for the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said NERA’s job-forecasting model is flawed. Bivens accused the firm of trying “to play on totally-legitimate concerns about today’s weak labor market.”

  …

  But Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute said NERA’s methodology is misleading because it relies on a model that “assumes nobody who wants a job cannot find one, nor does anybody who separates from a job ever do it involuntarily.”

  “This means that they have literally nothing at all to say about whether or not [regulations] will increase or decrease unemployment,” he said, adding that his research indicates the regulations in question would yield a modest boost in job creation over the coming years.

  The Hill February 28, 2013