Failing to raise the minimum wage has kept millions of low-wage workers, mostly restaurant and service industry employees, from meeting basic financial demands, according to a 2023 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on economic trends and policies affecting workers.
Jacobin
August 20, 2024
Project 2025 proposes taxing employers on any non-wage benefits that exceed $12,000 per worker annually. This policy, which has received little public attention, could impact health insurance, retirement plans, and other employer-provided benefits that many workers rely on. According to an analysis by EPI Action, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization affiliated with the Economic Policy Institute, this proposal could affect more than 15 million workers, resulting in an additional $12 billion in taxes if employers reduce or eliminate these benefits.
Nation of Change
August 20, 2024
“This wouldn’t help very many workers, and it could actually be very harmful to millions more, with the real benefits of this policy change going to employers and the wealthy at the expense of working people,” says David Cooper, researcher from EPI Action, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization.
NerdWallet
August 20, 2024
What Democrats can point out in defense is rising wages relative to inflation. According to the Economic Policy Institute, average wages have beat the rise of inflation for the past year. Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) noted that in a recent post.
Washington Examiner
August 20, 2024
Though he has positioned himself as pro-union, Trump is no stranger to complaints about his labor policy and approach to worker rights. In 2020, the Economic Policy Institute released a report listing 50 ways the first Trump administration eroded worker rights and expanded corporate power.
Business Insider
August 20, 2024
The inflation-adjusted wage spike early in the pandemic was somewhat misleading, both because 20 million low-wage service workers left the workforce temporarily and because prices for some things such as gasoline temporarily plummeted, noted Josh Bivens, chief economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
As the economic recovery has progressed, workers are doing slightly better, Bivens said.
“On the one hand, all else equal, you’d want better wage growth over four and a half years,” Bivens said. “On the other hand, we suffered a horrible economic shock in that period. Relative to other recessions and recoveries, this is superb wage performance, even with the inflation.”
Stateline
August 20, 2024
Zoom out. With this law, Illinois is joining more than a dozen states that are considering or have enacted laws allowing workers to opt out of workplace speech that’s considered to be coercive, according to tracking by the Economic Policy Institute. A similar law in Hawaii went into effect on July 2.
HR Brew
August 20, 2024
Regardless, new immigration laws will have a deep impact on labor availability in agriculture and will need corresponding prioritization of worker programs and securing a consistent and law-abiding workforce for farms. Trump may need to address the growing farmworker wage gap as well, as detailed by the Economic Policy Institute.
GO Banking Rates
August 20, 2024
- The idea of “school choice,” where proponents claimed for years that poor families can “escape failing public schools” has been proven false. Instead, the Economic Policy Institute determined that “vouchers benefit the wealthy at the expense of low-income and rural communities.” Moreover, the EPI study found that “… since vouchers typically do not cover the full cost of private school, low-income families are still unable to afford private school education — even with a voucher — and few rural students have access to private schools.”
Ohio Capital Journal
August 20, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute, “RTW laws — and the phrase “right to work” itself — are intended to deceive and confuse. The misleadingly named policy is designed to make it more difficult for workers to form and sustain unions and negotiate collectively for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.”
GO Banking Rates
August 20, 2024