The U.S. economy has added an average of 173,000 jobs monthly over the past three months, Economic Policy Institute senior economist Elise Gould noted in an analysis of the new Labor Department figures.
Common Dreams
December 9, 2024
According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, that gap increased by 7.6 percent between 2010 and 2021, causing the average weekly wages of teachers…[paywall].
Boston Globe
December 9, 2024
“One of the first anti-union moves we’d expect would be that he will fire pro-labor appointees at federal agencies, beginning with Jennifer Abruzzo,” the Economic Policy Institute’s Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy Samantha Sanders told Truthout. “As general counsel at the NLRB, Abruzzo is arguably one of the most effective forces for workers in the Biden administration, and has taken a lot of proactive steps to defend workers’ rights to form unions and to hold employers accountable for illegal union-busting activities.”
Truthout
December 9, 2024
Unions can help shrink the so-called public-sector wage gap, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, at a time when many state and local governments continue to face staffing shortages.
Orlando Weekly
December 9, 2024
The average top American CEO took home $22.2 million in 2023, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. Meanwhile the average American earns roughly $59,228 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Salon
December 9, 2024
The labor-affiliated Economic Policy Institute also offered encouraging words, citing Chavez-DeRemer’s support for the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would protect organizing and collective bargaining rights for government employees.
“While Congresswoman Chavez-DeRemer’s support for these needed reforms is encouraging,” EPI general counsel Celine McNicholas wrote, “if confirmed, she will be Secretary of Labor for a president who steadfastly pursued an ambitious anti-worker agenda during his first term in office.”
LA Times
December 9, 2024
“We know the labor market doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” said EPI’s Gould. “Policymakers have a role to play in keeping the economy strong. I think what we’ve seen is measured rate cuts, and I think we will continue to see that.”
She added: “It’s yet to be seen what policymakers coming in are going to do that could impact the labor market; but it is a quite strong labor market that the transition is walking into.”
CNN Business
December 9, 2024
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute has called on Chavez-DeRemer to fight for at least a $14 billion budget for the agency and defend the Biden rule to expand overtime protections to 4 million workers in court. The group also wants her to refuse to reinstate the Trump-era Payroll Audit Independent Determination program, which allowed employers to self report wage-and-hour violations to avoid penalties and litigation, among other promises.
EPI and the National Employment Law Project are also urging Chavez-DeRemer to finalize a standard to protect workers from heat on the job.
“If workers truly have an ally in Chavez-DeRemer, she will advance policies that improve workers’ lives,” EPI’s Director of Policy and General Counsel Celine McNicholas wrote. Chavez-DeRemer’s support of those policies “will reveal whether the second Trump administration will actually aid working-class Americans or be a continuation of his first administration’s agenda attacking workers’ rights,” McNicholas said.
Bloomberg Law
December 9, 2024
The two parties have been negotiating for about eight months. In many cases, it takes more than one year for a new union to reach their first contract deal with owners and management, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
WHYY
December 9, 2024
“The latest jobs data says the labor market is still going strong,” Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a post on social media. “After the softer numbers in October from the weather and striking workers, November bounces back with strong job growth along with upward revisions.”
The Hill
December 9, 2024