“The labor market data out this morning suggests the Fed has waited too long to lower interest rates,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, posted on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter.
Investopedia
August 5, 2024
“We don’t know just how precipitously the labor market is softening, but it seems pretty darn clear that it is softening,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
CNN Business
August 5, 2024
The data paints an incredibly favorable employment landscape for Black workers; however, many disparities continue to persist, said Valerie Wilson, a labor economist and director of the Economic Policy Institute’s EPI Action advocacy nonprofit.
The pandemic recovery and economic expansion since has resulted in wage gains for many workers, and that has included Black workers, she noted.
“Even at historic lows, Black Americans still have a higher unemployment rate than any other racial or ethnic group that is recorded in the BLS statistics each month,” Wilson said. “We talk a lot about the 2-to-1 ratio between Black and White unemployment (the Black unemployment rate typically is twice the White unemployment rate), so, the progress has been marginal in terms of that disparity.”
CNN Business
August 5, 2024
Wilson, of Economic Policy Institute Action, also criticized the phrase, in part because it fails to acknowledge the issue of “occupational segregation,” in which employers tend to place Black workers in low-wage positions rather than high-wage ones. The U.S., she added, has made progress in addressing that trend in recent years, though it remains an impediment for wage gains among Black workers.
“It’s just a very poor choice of words in terms of trying to say anything about the labor market, and it’s a poor choice of words in particular because it’s offensive,” said Wilson, who is Black.
“It totally ignores the facts about the current economy and the improvement that we’ve seen over the last four years,” Wilson added.
ABC News
August 5, 2024
Another recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, released in February 2024, reveals that immigrants are not hurting U.S.-born workers. The reality is that the labor market is absorbing immigrants at a rapid pace, while maintaining record unemployment for U.S.-born workers, it argues.
LA Times
August 5, 2024
..a number that without a ban would likely continue to rise, said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute….[paywall].
Tech Target
August 5, 2024
Minimum wage is now scheduled to jump to over $12 next year, up from the current $10.33. It also will end employers’ ability to pay a “tipped” minimum of $3.93 to workers like servers and bartenders.
Jayaraman said the Economic Policy Institute estimated that 500,000 workers could benefit from the decision. (Other sources put the figure at much lower, closer to 60,000)
Bridge Michigan
August 5, 2024
However, the bill only has 15 sponsors in the House and 5 in the Senate. The lack of interest from most members of Congress probably stems from the aggressive specifics. As the sponsors note, citing data from the Economic Policy Institute, “In 2022, big company CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker, up from an average pay ratio of just 21 to 1 in 1965.” This highlights how absurd the pay gap has become and the difficulty of returning to the past. There’s no way corporations will suddenly slash the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio by 85 percent to avoid a tax surcharge.
Washington Monthly
August 5, 2024
A number of other states are considering similar legislation, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute, amid a wave of high-profile union drives across the country in recent years. But business groups have sued over Minnesota and Connecticut’s laws, claiming employers’ First Amendment rights are being infringed upon.
Capitol News Illinois
August 5, 2024
But the researchers who estimated that total for One Fair Wage, the progressive Economic Policy Institute, also estimated in 2023 that just 52,000 Michigan workers were making minimum wage, now at $10.33. And the institute’s own interactive data tool currently estimates that 226,000 make less than $12 an hour.
Bridge Michigan
August 5, 2024