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• Black women are finding better jobs than ever. A recession could reverse that.

  In Pennsylvania, Black workers have seen some of the largest gains in employment, with the Black unemployment rate falling by nearly 17 percent since the second quarter of 2020, an Economic Policy Institute analysis found. 

  The Washington Post July 14, 2023
• We’re older than we used to be — especially in these states

  Others work because they can’t afford retirement. According to the Economic Policy Institute, roughly one-third of workers aged 55 to 64 don’t have access to a retirement savings plan. Those who rely solely on Social Security benefits may find they don’t cover all of their living expenses. Major unplanned expenses like medical bills can also keep people in the workforce.

  Stateline July 14, 2023
• What’s keeping rental car prices so high?

  Indeed, a report from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, suggests that corporate profits contributed more to overall inflation in 2020 and 2021 than labor or material costs. Higher rental car prices and corporate profits may be part of this trend.

  NerdWallet July 14, 2023
• An Iowa law rolling back child labor protections has come into effect

  It’s not just Iowa. At least fourteen states have sought to weaken regulations against the employment of children over the past two years, the Economic Policy Institute recently noted, even as violations of those laws have been on the rise. The Department of Labor (DOL) identified over 3,800 cases of child labor violations in the 2022 fiscal year after investigating some 835 businesses, the highest level of incidents since 2008. Among the violators were McDonald’s franchisees, slaughterhouse cleaning company Packers Sanitation Services, and a Hyundai and Kia plant in Alabama.

  Quartz July 14, 2023
• Minimum wage workers in these states and localities just got a raise

  Lots of low-wage workers just received a boost in pay, as more than a dozen states and localities increased their minimum wages.

  Oregon beefed up its hourly minimum wage by 70 cents to $14.20 as of July 1, while Nevada increased its minimum wage by 75 cents to $11.25, according to a tally by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Washington, DC, raised its minimum wage by 90 cents to $17.

  CNN July 14, 2023
• Amazon and McDonald’s have largest wage gaps between CEOs and employees

  The U.S middle class, which once accounted for the majority of Americans, has been shrinking, while the salaries of top CEOs have increased by over 1,400% since the 1970s; in comparison, the average worker salary grew by just 18.1% in the same period, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 

  Employee Benefit News July 14, 2023
• Retailers, beware: Resumption of student loan payments could lead some buyers to pull back

  Even if all that won’t be enough to weaken overall economic growth, the shift in spending by many young adults could inject further uncertainty into an economy already beset by uncertainties, from whether the Fed will manage to tame inflation and halt its interest rate hikes to whether a recession is destined to strike by next year, as many economists still fear.

  Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute think tank, suggested that the likely hit to the economy might amount to perhaps one-third of a percentage point of gross domestic product — the nation’s total output of goods and services — or about $85 billion or $90 billion a year.

  It’s “not trivial, but it’s not huge,’’ Bivens said. “At the macro level, my guess is that it won’t be a game-changer.’’

  Associated Press July 14, 2023
• It’s Hamiltonian! It’s Jeffersonian! It’s Bidenomics!

  As the major U.S. corporations began offshoring their production or their suppliers in the 1980s and ’90s, only a relative handful of progressives—among them, Economic Policy Institute founder Jeff Faux, MIT economist Lester Thurow, and my Prospect colleague-to-be Bob Kuttner—argued that this would do long-term harm to the nation generally and its working class in particular. 

  American Prospect July 14, 2023
• Medicaid payment proposal for health aides rankles home health companies

  Home health agencies say they could be driven out of business by a Biden administration proposal that would require them to spend the majority of their Medicaid dollars on higher pay for direct care workers.

  Why it matters: The proposal aims to improve stability in the home- and community-based care workforce, which is shrinking as the demand for services increases.

  • 1 in 6 direct care aides lives below the poverty line, according to a 2022 report from the Economic Policy Institute.
  Axios July 14, 2023
• The places where minimum wages are rising this summer

  Three states and 16 localities raised their minimum wage this summer, many of them through automatic inflation adjustments, the Economic Policy Institute notes in a new report.

  Why it matters: Boosting the wage floor has the downstream effect of raising pay for those who make more than the minimum — as employers have to adjust their wage ladders upward.

  Axios July 14, 2023
• States, cities turn to community organizations to battle wage theft

  Funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, the federal government’s response to the economic and health ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed more states and cities to experiment with using community groups to connect with workers as Minneapolis did. That’s according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School.

  …

  The report highlighted efforts in several cities and states.

  In 2021, Maine started a program with $1 million in ARPA funds for job training, help accessing unemployment benefits, and worker outreach with the support of community organizations, the AFL-CIO, and a legal aid group, according to the EPI report. In Seattle, the city’s Office of Labor Standards staff have monthly and quarterly meetings with community-based organizations. Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco also have close partnerships with community organizations as do San Diego and Santa Clara counties in California.

  In Iowa, the cities of Coralville, North Liberty, and Iowa City and Johnson County allocated $322,000 in ARPA funds over five years to the Center for Worker Justice in Eastern Iowa, which investigates wage theft cases and helps put community pressure on employers to pay their employees, and has assisted workers in recovering lost wages.

  States Newsroom July 14, 2023
• July 14, 2023
  July 14, 2023
• The Supreme Court just killed affirmative action in the deluded name of meritocracy

  According to studies by the Economic Policy Institute and U.S. Census Bureau, the top 1% of Americans takes home 21% of all income in the country. Meanwhile, the gap in earnings between those with and without college degrees (also known as the college wage premium) has steadily increased since 2000. 

  San Francisco Chronicle June 30, 2023
• Opinion: The UPS strike authorization vote is about more than just pay

  The negotiations at UPS could also help workers who are not union members. Unions cause a spillover effect, achieving gains that later become standard or legally mandated, like benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their families, as well as the eight-hour work day and days off on weekends. Air-conditioned UPS trucks, for example, will help set a norm that all workers deserve heat protection.

  The UPS strike authorization vote also reflects the increasing willingness of workers in a range of industries to exercise collective power to seek better conditions for themselves, their coworkers and future generations. And it’s not just about pay. Railroad workers last fall sought paid sick days. The Amazon Labor Union was formed because of concerns about Covid safety. Kellogg’s workers went on strike in 2021 over a two-tier compensation structure. And on Friday, workers in about 150 Starbucks locations went on strike over the company’s alleged restricting of Pride decorations in some locations.

  CNN June 30, 2023
• Get On the Bus: Why the Switch to Clean Mass Transit Will Improve Public Health

  “We’re seeing reinvestment, but the majority of it is going to the South, which in many cases looks like American maquiladoras,” said Adam Hersh, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute at the Chicago Federal Reserve’s annual auto industry outlook conference in January. (Maquiladoras are factories in Mexico run by foreign companies looking to employ cheap labor and avoid tariffs.) He noted that unionization in the South is less than 4 percent, creating a wage gap between the North and the South in the auto sector greater than the 15 percent wage gap for all industries.   

  Washington Monthly June 30, 2023
• DoorDash delivery workers to get option of hourly rate

  The other side: Critics say gig economy apps like DoorDash leave workers with less than they’d have if they had a steady job.

  • About 1 in 7 gig workers earned less than the federal minimum wage as of spring 2020, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
  Axios June 30, 2023
• What’s Keeping Rental Car Prices so High?

  Indeed, a report from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, suggests that corporate profits contributed more to overall inflation in 2020 and 2021 than labor or material costs. Higher rental car prices and corporate profits may be part of this trend.

  NerdWallet June 30, 2023
• Why so many workers are going on strike these days

  It’s the kind of energy and enthusiasm that can ripple beyond unions, per Margaret Poydock, a policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute.

  “So, you know, if there are unionized workers who are going on strike and they get their demands of increased wages and certain benefits, research shows that unions have spillover effects,” she said.

  In other words, if a big airline, retailer or restaurant chain improves working conditions or increases pay, other companies in those industries may follow.

  Marketplace June 30, 2023
• Joe Biden tries to change the narrative on the economy

  Between 2019 and 2022, the inflation-adjusted wages of workers in the tenth percentile of the wage distribution increased by nine per cent, according to a study published earlier this year by Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, in Washington, D.C. When I spoke to Gould on Tuesday, she said that, based on wage data from industries such as leisure and hospitality, which employ a lot of low-wage workers, it appears that this trend has kept up into 2023. “Low-wage workers have had a bit more leverage, and that is reflected in the wage data,” Gould said. “They are doing better than before.”

  The New Yorker June 30, 2023
• Dark money is fueling Republican efforts to roll back child labor laws

  The move drew sharp criticism from labor advocates. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning labor think tank, called the bill “one of the most dangerous rollbacks of child labor laws in the country” and asserted that much of the law violates federal labor law.

  Over the past two years, lawmakers in at least 10 states — most recently in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Missouri — have passed or introduced legislation to weaken child labor protections.

  …

  “There is a focus for them right now, particularly on the state level, on policies that erode investments in public education, increase the desperation of the poorest families by restricting access to Medicaid or food assistance, while also, of course, taking down guardrails on excessive hours or hazardous work for children,” said Jennifer Sherer, the senior state policy coordinator at the Economic Policy Institute. 

  The American Independent June 30, 2023
• IMF Says Corporate Profiteering Caused Nearly Half of Europe’s Recent Inflation Surge

  In March, the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens wrote that “in normal times, corporate profits contribute about 13% to prices.”

  “Since the second quarter of 2020, they have instead contributed more than a third of price growth, or more than twice as much as they normally do,” Bivens estimated.

  Common Dreams June 30, 2023
• Renewable energy expert Adam Hersh to discuss Australia’s transition

  International expert, Adam Hersh, will address the opportunities and challenges presented by Australia’s renewable energy revolution at the National Manufacturing Summit in Canberra on 2 and 3 August.

  Mirage NEws June 30, 2023
• How to Attract Childcare Workers? Virginia Tries Fast Training and Higher Pay

  Workers at childcare facilities also rarely receive health insurance benefits. As reported by the Economic Policy Institute, “Just 15.0 percent of childcare workers have employer-sponsored health insurance through their own job, compared with 49.9 percent of workers in other occupations.”

  Nonprofit Quarterly June 30, 2023
• Being Happy With Your Paycheck Isn’t Just About How Big It Is

  Independent workers making low wages aren’t so happy with their pay. A 2020 survey of hundreds of gig workers analyzed by researchers at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank focused on policy around low- and middle-income workers, found those working for digital platform companies like Uber, Instacart or DoorDash often reported poor working conditions and low pay. One in five gig workers often couldn’t afford enough food to eat, the survey found.  

  Wall Street Journal June 30, 2023
• Trump said EVs will ‘decimate’ Michigan. Bridge fact-checks his claims

  A study last fall from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute said the U.S. could lose 75,000 auto jobs if EVs become half of all cars sold by 2030. But the report also said different jobs will be created, and the U.S. could gain 150,000 jobs from the transition if policy focuses on domestic market share and assembling vehicles here.

  Bridge Michigan June 30, 2023
• Tech layoffs trigger time bomb for foreign employees

  All of this is exacerbated by the widespread layoffs, which are also shining a light on the precarity that foreign workers are forced to endure. An Economic Policy Institute publication states that:

  • The H-1B visa program was created to fill labor shortages in professional fields and could be a valuable temporary work visa program, but new data show it is being subverted by employers that are not facing labor shortages and by outsourcing firms.
  Tech HQ June 30, 2023
• This app is helping workers reclaim millions in lost wages

  Wage theft—in which employers skimp on overtime or regular pay, and sometimes simply fail to pay at all—costs US workers approximately $50 billion annually, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 

  MIT Technology Review June 30, 2023
• Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law

  Richard Rothstein is a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

  Below, Leah and Richard share 5 key insights from their new book, Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law.

  Next Big Idea Club June 30, 2023
• Hope in “End Times”: Peter Turchin’s analysis of our coming collapse could help us avoid it

  For example, while wages fell far behind the growth of economic productivity from 1979 onward, Turchin cites analysis from the Economic Policy Institute indicating that three-fourths of that gap was due to elite-driven policy shifts: weakened labor standards, the erosion of collective bargaining, corporate globalization and so-called fiscal austerity.

  Salon June 30, 2023
• Where did tipping culture in the United States come from?

  According to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, the median hourly wage for servers in the United States, including tips, was $11.42 in 2019, while the median hourly wage for non-tipped workers was $18.58. However, the report notes that the tipped minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation, resulting in a decline in purchasing power for tipped workers.

  The Georgia Sun June 30, 2023