The additional rules detract from the intent of providing unemployment insurance, according to experts like Chandra Childers, senior policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
“At a larger, macro level, it would allow the economy to work better, especially during periods of recession, because now people have money that they are spending,” she said. “The flip side of that is if you make it harder to access, restrict duration, or restrict benefits, then what it does is it makes workers more desperate. It is an effort, essentially, to force workers to take any job, so therefore, they are not able to bid up the quality of jobs.”
Alabama Reflector
September 3, 2024
“How is it possible that in 2024 we don’t have good information about this?” said Heidi Shierholz, former chief economist at the US Department of Labor. “And it’s because these surveys were put in place decades ago when these things weren’t as much of an issue.”
Absent better federal data, economists, as well as an independent federal watchdog, have warned that policymakers will be relying on inconsistent information when making decisions regarding federal benefit programs or evaluating labor policies, such as those seeking to clarify gig workers’ employment status. It’s also key to understanding how our economy works, economists say.
“It’s incredibly important to policymaking that helps dictate the success or failure of the economy as far as it delivers for the people who are in it,” added Shierholz, who is now at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg Law
September 3, 2024
Using data from the Economic Policy Institute, Visual Capitalist recently created a graphic depicting the changes in real wages from 1979 to 2023 across all major income groups. These are the main results, as well as some key factors for why wages have changed over time.
GO Banking Rates
September 3, 2024
Many progressive organizations contribute to retirement funds for employees; the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is offering a whopping 9.25% employer-provided 401k retirement contribution. Many organizations in this ecosystem are unionized.
Teen Vogue
September 3, 2024
We should eagerly fund these and all agencies so they can provide services for all—not run them to the ground, as has happened with the postal service, which, according to the Economic Policy Institute, has suffered from attacks by “anti-government ideologues and special interests [that] have long sought to privatize, shrink, or hobble” it.
Current Affairs
September 3, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), approximately 192,400 bus drivers were working in K–12 schools in September 2023, down 15.1% from September 2019. The employment for state and local government school bus drivers has fallen 13.6% over the same period, according to EPI data. Meanwhile, private school bus driver employment has declined 21.5%.
Fox Business
September 3, 2024
Over the past three years, 28 states have introduced bills to weaken child labor laws and a dozen states have enacted them, the Economic Policy Institute reported in February.
USA Today
September 3, 2024
From 2019 through 2023, low-wage workers saw their incomes rise at the fastest clip in decades, which has begun to reverse growing income inequality. The lowest-paid workers saw their wages rise 13.2% over those four years compared to 3% for middle-wage earners and 4.4% for the highest-wage earners, according to researchers at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
The EPI researchers note the tight labor market wasn’t the only factor at work, and the government’s generous economic relief programs during the COVID-19 pandemic and increases to local minimum wages also played a part.
Minnesota Reformer
September 3, 2024
According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, child care in Pennsylvania falls $2,692 shy of reaching the average price of in-state tuition to a four-year college. But their data shows the average cost for infant child care in the state to be $11,842, making up 17.5% of the median family’s income.
CBS Philadelphia
September 3, 2024
According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, the merger would reduce the total annual earnings of grocery store workers in affected metropolitan areas by $334 million.
Common Dreams
September 3, 2024