Tax cuts and spending cuts became the Holy Grail of American politics, and the Democrats who opposed them seemed unable to run an economy.
But that belief was not based in reality. In April the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute found that since 1949 the nation’s annual real growth has been 1.2 percentage points higher under Democratic administrations than under Republican administrations (3.79% versus 2.60%), total job growth averages 2.5% annually under Democrats compared to barely over 1% under Republicans, business investment is more than double the pace under Democrats than under Republicans, average rates of inflation are slightly lower under Democrats, and families in the bottom 20% of the economy experience income growth 188% faster under Democrats than under Republicans.
Letters from an American (Heather Cox Richardson)
October 15, 2024
In Start With the Money: Pay Equity as the Foundation of Fairness, Bussing’s Women in Tech session at HR Tech, she highlighted a March 2024 report from the Economic Policy Institute, revealing that there has been little significant progress in closing the pay gap over the past 30 years.
HR Executive
October 15, 2024
Adam Hersh, a senior economist with Economic Policy Institute Action, likened that latter idea “to dropping a nuclear bomb on a hurricane” in an interview this summer. According to Hersh’s estimates, border taxes on imports might possibly have to reach around 130% or higher in order to have a chance to generate the revenue that comes from income tax.
MSNBC
October 15, 2024
We also examine the origins of the practice of tipping. Nina Mast of the Economic Policy Institute discusses how tipping is a legacy of our nation’s deeply racist past, and what that means for workers today.
Oregon Center for Public Policy
October 15, 2024
Globalization and trade impacts also hit the Iron Range and rural America disproportionately along educational lines. Americans without college degrees lost nearly $2,000 a year in wages due to trade policies, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Broader research showed, as of 2008, that “international trade tends to make low-skilled workers in the United States worse off — not just temporarily, but on a sustained basis.”
Minnesota Post
October 15, 2024
An Economic Policy Institute report from 2022 argued wages for non-college educated workers tend to be substantially lower in service industry jobs and the impact has been particularly pronounced for workers of color.
Ohio Capital Journal
October 15, 2024
Back in 1965, the Economic Policy Institute noted last month in its latest annual CEO pay report, the top execs at major U.S. corporations only averaged 21 times what typical American workers earned. Nearly a quarter-century later, in 1989, CEOs were still only averaging 61 times worker pay.
Counterpunch
October 15, 2024
When they vote in November, Missouri voters will decide on Proposition A, which would raise the state’s minimum wage and mandate paid sick leave for all private employees. If passed, the minimum wage would rise from $12.30 to $13.75 by 2025, and reach $15 per hour in 2026. Employers would be required to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the move would mean more money for about 900,000 workers. The group Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages says that boost would help 137,000 parents and, by extension, 338,000 kids in the state.
Truthout
October 15, 2024
City governments might be more tolerant of short-term rentals if there were a clear economic case. But studies cited by the Economic Policy Institute found they jeopardize revenue flowing into municipal coffers because the recording and implementing of tax obligations from short-stay hosts are less comprehensive than for hotels, partly because some local agreements cede responsibility in this area to the short-stay platforms themselves.
BNN Bloomberg
October 15, 2024
Finally, the mother of all these myths is that historically Republicans have been better economic managers of the nation’s affairs than Democrats. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute shows that this one finds no support in the historical record.
Democratic administrations since WWII have seen job growth of 2.5%, compared to only 1.1% for their Republican rivals. Other measures like GDP show a similar gap.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
October 15, 2024