While the unemployment rate has been at or below 4 percent for 28 months, “we are not in an economy where everybody who wants a job gets a job,” said Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute. “There will always be the case that there are unemployed workers.” Which means that even if chances are low, we may all get a turn being unemployed during our working years. And that can be unsettling if you don’t expect it.
Boston Globe
May 3, 2024
St. Louis Post Dispatch
May 3, 2024
But data suggest that to some extent, the visa has been used to hire cheaper foreign labor. A 2020 report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute concluded that 60% of H-1B jobs certified by the U.S. Department of Labor were assigned wage levels well below local median pay for the occupation.
The Mercury News
May 3, 2024
Starting in July, workers earning just under $44,000 a year will be entitled to time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week, our Nick Niedzwiadek reports. That number will increase to $58,656 at the beginning of 2025.
The Labor Department periodically raises the threshold. The last time was in 2019, when it went up to $35,568 under former President Donald Trump.
The Economic Policy Institute, a think tank with ties to labor unions, projects workers in health care and social services will benefit in large numbers.
Politico Future Pulse newsletter
May 3, 2024
Teacher salaries have remained stagnant across the country since 1996, and a report from the Economic Policy Institute shows California teachers were paid 17% less than comparable college-educated workers last year.
The Hill
May 3, 2024
A 2023 study by the Economic Policy Institute revealed that one in two workers over age 50 work in unhealthy or hazardous conditions, or have jobs that are physically draining. If this is the case, you may no longer be willing or able to work, and instead of remaining on the job, may choose to draw Social Security early.
Kiplinger
May 3, 2024
There is a coordinated, nationwide effort to roll back child labor laws, part of a broader campaign to concentrate even more power into the hands of employers.
“Since 2021,” the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute notes, “28 states have introduced bills to weaken child labor laws, and 12 states have enacted them.” In 2024 alone, eight states have either introduced or taken new action on bills that would, for example, allow employers to schedule 16- and 17-year-olds for unlimited hours, allow nonprofits to hire 12- and 13-year-olds and eliminate work permits for young people altogether.
New York Times
May 3, 2024
These are not isolated incidents, either. Google has been accused of illegally firing workers for unionizing, interfering with protected activities, and generally engaging in illegal behavior to suppress its workers from exercising their rights to organize for better working conditions, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Daily Mail
May 3, 2024
To be sure, for many minimum wage workers, the pay raises are needed. Of the nearly 10 million workers in the country who are now set to receive raises, women make up over half; nearly a quarter of them, or roughly 2.5 million, are working parents with families; and over 50% of workers getting raises currently earn incomes below the poverty line, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
Fortune
May 3, 2024
The economy is absorbing foreign-born workers while also generating jobs for those who were born in the U.S., an analysis from the left-leaning, pro-union Economic Policy Institute found, bucking claims that immigrants may be filling jobs that Americans would otherwise be working.
Kansas City Beacon
May 3, 2024