Media clips

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• It’s necessary to tame the national debt. And surprisingly doable.

  The foundation asked seven think tanks from across the ideological spectrum to submit detailed plans for putting the debt back on a sustainable trajectory. Every single institution agreed that American borrowing must be reined in. “It gives me hope to see a couple hundred different policy proposals that could solve this,” said Michael A. Peterson, chief executive of the foundation. “This is a solvable challenge for the United States.” (The think tanks include: the American Action Forum, the American Enterprise Institute, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Center for American Progress, the Economic Policy Institute, the Manhattan Institute and the Progressive Policy Institute.)

  The Washington Post July 23, 2024
• Disneyland workers say they live in cars and motels due to low pay

  The disparity between workers pay and management has been fuelling labour unrest in the United States. According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, CEO compensation rose 1,460 percent between 1978 and 2021.

  BBC News July 22, 2024
• Opinion

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, the cost of daycare is unaffordable for 92% of families in the state.

  Wichita Eagle July 22, 2024
• Is JD Vance Really A Friend Of Labor?

  “I would say my skepticism runs deep,” said Celine McNicholas, policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and former special counsel at the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that referees union matters in the private sector.

  She noted that although Vance visited striking auto workers in Ohio last year, he has not gotten onboard with the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, Democrats’ sweeping proposal for labor law reform. The legislation would, among other things, prevent companies from permanently replacing strikers.

  “Vance may do a little bit better on the rhetoric, but there isn’t a ton of daylight between the vice-presidential nominee and Trump,” McNicholas said.

  Huffpost July 22, 2024
• Report Shows How Lawmakers in GOP-Dominated South Harm Workers

  “For at least the last 40 years, pay and job quality for workers across the South has been inferior compared to other regions—thanks to the racist and anti-worker Southern economic development model.”

  That’s according to a Thursday report by Chandra Childers, a senior policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The new publication is part of her “Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation” series.

  Common Dreams July 22, 2024
• Labor leaders decry Gov. Reynolds’ lax child labor laws

  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
• Discretionary Income and How to Calculate It

  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
• Boulder school bus driver shortage may force route cuts

  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
• The Gun Lobby Ensured That Guns Are Allowed at the RNC

  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
• Eastern Iowa laborers slam state amid battle over relaxed child labor regulations

  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