Jennifer Sherer, director of the State Worker Power Initiative with the Economic Policy Institute, addresses attendees at the July 16 roundtable. [Paywall].
Corridor Business Journal
July 22, 2024
However, for everyone else, it has been detrimental, as wage growth has not kept up with productivity growth. Figures provided by the Economic Policy Institute reveal that productivity rose 74% between 1973 and 2013, but the average hourly wage earned by workers gained only 9%.
Business Insider
July 22, 2024
Nationally, school districts are struggling to hire bus drivers since the beginning of the pandemic. Research by the Economic Policy Institute showed last year that the number of bus drivers working in K-12 schools was down 15.1% since 2019, according to a report by the National Education Association.
Denver Gazette
July 22, 2024
A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, found that Southern and Midwestern states are more likely to misuse preemptions to interfere with labor standards. They write that state preemption laws are “intertwined with a history of segregation and other policy choices that have reinforced anti-Black racism and white supremacy.”
Jacobin
July 22, 2024
Jennifer Sherer of the Economic Policy Institute shared statistics and a brief history of federal child labor restrictions on Tuesday, July 16, to the room of more than 30 union laborers and elected officials. She directs the Worker Power Project for the institute and is the former head of the University of Iowa Labor Center.
The data indicated that the workforce is continuing to grow, while the number of U.S. Department of Labor agents available to investigate claims − from child labor to unpaid wages − is falling behind.
“We are experiencing and living through a moment in U.S. history where we really can’t characterize this as anything other than a crisis,” Sherer said.
Iowa City Press Citizen
July 22, 2024
However Black unemployment in our state is actually at one of its lowest right now. According to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, the Black unemployment rate in Pennsylvania is about 5.7% compared to when Biden took office, when it was around 16.5%.
WHYY
July 22, 2024
THE CLAIM
“[Worker wages] stagnated for pretty much my entire life until President Donald J. Trump came along. Workers wages went through the roof.”
Economist Josh Bivens of the liberal Economic Policy Institute also told Wisconsin Watch that the 7% figure is the highest for any single presidential term since former President Richard Nixon. But he called the increase under Trump “artificial” because fewer low-wage workers were employed, which drove up the average.
Verify This
July 22, 2024
The bureau’s data shows waiters and waitresses in Washington, D.C., earned an average hourly wage of $24.98 in May 2023, up from $24.42 in May 2022. It’s also higher when compared to before the pandemic when the average wage was $23.83 in May 2019.
But the Economic Policy Institute said servers at high-end restaurants tend to do “exceptionally well,” which can skew the average wage. The group said the median wage, which is significantly lower, “is indicative of significant wage inequality among district waitstaff.”
WBEZ 91.5 Chicago
July 22, 2024
Despite some shrinkage in the racial wage gap over the last six years, the median Black worker still earns considerably less than his White counterparts, the New York Times reports. And though the gender gap has narrowed some since the movements of the 60s, recent data demonstrates little real improvement, reports the Economic Policy Institute.
North Dallas Gazette
July 22, 2024
The average CEO now brings in over 300 times the average worker’s pay according to the Economic Policy Institute. All of which begs the question, should this level of unbridled wealth even exist? In her new book, “Limitarianism, The Case against Extreme Wealth,” Ingrid Robeyns argues strongly that it shouldn’t.
USA Today
July 22, 2024