Between the end of World War II and the mid-1970s, as the Economic Policy Institute has famously documented, the median wages of American workers rose at the identical rate that productivity rose. Since then, as the rate of unionization declined and as companies shifted more revenues to profits and less to wages, that has ceased to be the case.
American Prospect
October 7, 2024
Progress for many workers’ rights issues was stagnant leading into 2016, and Trump tapped into that frustration, Celine McNicholas, policy director at nonpartisan research organization Economic Policy Institute Action, previously told USA TODAY.
“He was maybe the first Republican in a long time to kind of, like actually give some voice to that outrage,” she said. “But I think it stops there.”
She said he proposed cuts to worker protection agencies, and Economic Policy Institute called moves under his administration to overturn worker protections “unprecedented.”
USA Today
October 7, 2024
Regarding those wage gains, it’s worth noting that the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan but liberal-leaning research organization in Washington, found that wage gains for lower- and middle-wage workers outpaced those of higher-wage earners through 2023.
Detroit Free Press
October 7, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 24% of Latina mothers live in poverty compared to 12% of white, non-Hispanic mothers. The stark reality is that without significant changes, this pay gap will continue to affect the livelihoods and futures of millions of Latino families.
Our Latinx Magazine
October 4, 2024
Fiscal Times
October 4, 2024
This trend, particularly among the building trades, Ascher said, followed the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement — a pact among the United States, Mexico and Canada — that the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank affiliated with the labor movement, says led to the loss of thousands of union jobs.
Capital News Service Maryland
October 4, 2024
In the late 1990s, the rates of multiple jobholders were “much higher,” said economist Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute.
Agence France Press (AFP)
October 4, 2024
The U.S. economy added 254,000 new positions in the month of September, topping economist expectations of 150,000 jobs. Economic Policy Institute Senior Economist Elise Gould joins Morning Brief to share her insights on this latest labor market data.
Gould emphasizes that this report reinforces the strength of the labor market, stating, “It was strong before, and this is another strong report.” She highlights the positive indicators: a decrease in the unemployment rate and upward revisions adding 72,000 jobs to previous months’ figures. These factors paint a picture of a “quite strong” labor market.
Yahoo Finance TV
October 4, 2024
Between 1979 and 2024, productivity in the U.S. soared by 80.9%, while hourly pay grew by just 29.4%, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute.
This trend has often been referred to as wage stagnation. But more recently, some economists have suggested that deliberate policy decisions have actively suppressed workers’ wage growth.
One reason might be the unreasonably high rate of unemployment in the U.S.
“Economists produce this thing they call the natural rate of unemployment,” explained Josh Bivens, the chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “It’s like the lowest unemployment can go without generating inflation.”
CNBC
October 4, 2024