“Consider one metric of inequality — the ratio of the 90th-percentile wage (the wage earned by the worker who has higher pay than 90% of the workforce) to the 10th-percentile wage. Between 1980 and 2019, this ratio rose enormously by about 34%. But a full third of this 39-year increase has been erased in less than three years after 2019,” Bivens recently wrote in a blog post.
The 10th-percentile hourly wage was $12.57 in 2022, up 9% during that three-year period, he noted. “If this inequality reduction sticks, it could well be the single most important development in the economy in decades,” Bivens said.
CBS Moneywatch
December 1, 2023
Maryland and many other states now have laws on the books that
require minimum wages to rise along with inflation. Maryland leaders recognized that the $15 minimum unions and worker advocates campaigned for a decade ago no longer goes far enough, said Sebastian Martinez Hickey, a research assistant for the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C.
“What they thought $15 an hour would achieve no longer has that same
purchasing power,” Hickey said. “A lot of other states are going to be
making a similar calculation in the next couple of years.”
It would take about $20 today to buy what $15 could buy 10 years ago,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. EPI backs raising the federal
minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2028.
Pluribus News
December 1, 2023
US law hamstrings organising efforts because it allows employers to punish union leaders with minimal consequences and to hold mandatory meetings where workers must listen to anti-union messages, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Earlier UAW efforts to organise in the south met defeat at Nissan’s plant in Mississippi and VW’s in Tennessee, while in February, 18 workers at Tesla said they were fired for organising a union drive.
Financial Times
December 1, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, nearly half of U.S. employers are charged with violating federal law in union election campaigns, from illegally firing workers to coercing and threatening workers. Some employers, flush with enough cash, hire professional union-busters to water down pro-union support within the workforce.
Orlando Weekly
December 1, 2023
The U.S. Department of Labor, which investigated those three businesses, found a 37% national increase in the number of minors whose employment has violated federal labor laws in some way since 2021, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Salt Lake Tribune
December 1, 2023
Behn noted a recent progressive Economic Policy Institute report showed more than 60% of corporations filing in Tennessee pay “zero in state corporate income tax,” a figure she said includes “27% of all billion-dollar corporations.”
Chattanooga Times Free Press
December 1, 2023
On average, teachers earn 23.5% less than comparable college graduates, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
December 1, 2023
▪ Cost of living. The typical budget for a two-parent, two-child family in Sacramento County is $7,689 per month, according to 2020 data from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The calculation addresses what it calls a “modest yet adequate standard of living.”
Sacramento Bee
December 1, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that anywhere from 27% to 47% of all workers in the private sector are subject to some kind of non-compete restrictions.
The Daily Gazette
December 1, 2023
If the Affordable Care Act is abolished, an estimated 29.8 million people would lose their health insurance and 1.2 million jobs will be lost according to Economic Policy Institute.
Heartland Signal
December 1, 2023
A 2019 Economic Policy Institute study concluded that the economic harm Airbnb caused to long-term renters by reducing the housing supply and raising prices outweighed the benefits to travelers and property owners.
Pew Stateline
December 1, 2023
According to recent information from the Economic Policy Institute, presented at a committee hearing in November, the average cost of infant care in Minnesota is roughly 21-percent of the state’s median family income.
KTTC
December 1, 2023
▪ Cost of living. The typical budget for a two-parent, two-child family in Sacramento County is $7,689 per month, according to 2020 data from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The calculation addresses what it calls a “modest yet adequate standard of living.”
Sacramento Bee
December 1, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that anywhere from 27% to 47% of all workers in the private sector are subject to some kind of non-compete restrictions.
The Daily Gazette
December 1, 2023
If the Affordable Care Act is abolished, an estimated 29.8 million people would lose their health insurance and 1.2 million jobs will be lost according to Economic Policy Institute.
Heartland Signal
December 1, 2023
And these contracts are also a sign that employers could have been paying workers more all along, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist and president of the Economic Policy Institute, a union-supported think tank.
“What we’ve seen until the recent period is a real imbalance of power has allowed employers to set wages at a level below what their revenue and profits could bear,” she said. “We’re seeing some reversal of that right now.”
“I think there is a momentum aspect of this,” said EPI’s Shierholz. “The success, and the public support for these strikers, that stiffens the spine of those striking or threatening to strike. It feels like a lesson being re-learned about the power in collective action.”
CNN Business
November 22, 2023
A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that teachers’ unions reduced stress, while anti-union laws increase teacher stress.
We Are Teachers
November 22, 2023
US law hamstrings organising efforts because it allows employers to punish union leaders with minimal consequences and to hold mandatory meetings where workers must listen to anti-union messages, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Financial Times
November 22, 2023
Recent research from the Economic Policy Institute found rising inflation hurt public school teachers’ salaries nationwide, and districts like Portland Public Schools are struggling to keep up.
K-12 Dive
November 22, 2023
On average, teacher pay in the United States is nearly 25 percent less than what other college graduates receive, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
The Progressive
November 22, 2023
And these contracts are also a sign that employers could have been paying workers more all along, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist and president of the Economic Policy Institute, a union-supported think tank.
“What we’ve seen until the recent period is a real imbalance of power has allowed employers to set wages at a level below what their revenue and profits could bear,” she said. “We’re seeing some reversal of that right now.”
“I think there is a momentum aspect of this,” said EPI’s Shierholz. “The success, and the public support for these strikers, that stiffens the spine of those striking or threatening to strike. It feels like a lesson being re-learned about the power in collective action.”
CNN Business
November 22, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the 7% rule would save the average Minnesota family with an infant $10,401 per year, freeing up 32,444 more Minnesotans to work to support their family, and generate $3.7 billion in new economic activity.
Minnesota Reformer
November 22, 2023
A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that teachers’ unions reduced stress, while anti-union laws increase teacher stress.
We Are Teachers
November 22, 2023
It’s estimated between 27.8% and 46.5% of workers in the private sector are subject to noncompete clauses in the United States, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Spectrum News NY 1
November 22, 2023
US law hamstrings organising efforts because it allows employers to punish union leaders with minimal consequences and to hold mandatory meetings where workers must listen to anti-union messages, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Financial Times
November 22, 2023
Teachers’ pay has declined over the years compared to pay for other jobs, according to a recent report by Sylvia Allegretto, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute.
Business Insider
November 22, 2023
Cites EPI’s Company Wage Tracker.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
November 22, 2023
Quotes David Cooper [paywall].
Boston Globe
November 22, 2023