Media clips

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• Federal regulators just passed two new worker-friendly rules
  • The final rule would benefit 4.3 million workers, more than half of them women, per an estimate from the progressive Economic Policy Institute. It could result in a transfer of $1.5 billion in pay annually from employers to workers.
  • It’s a win-win for employees, whatever they choose, says Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, who worked on the Obama administration’s ultimately failed efforts to raise the overtime threshold. “Workers will either get higher pay or they’ll get their time back.”
  Axios April 26, 2024
• The end of non-compete agreements is a tech job earthquake

  Sure, historically, companies used these agreements to lock down highly skilled workers and executives with access to trade secrets or proprietary information. But that hasn’t been the case for decades. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a third of companies now require all their workers to sign non-competes. That includes “valued” employees such as hourly workers in minimum wage jobs doing janitorial duties or food service. 

  Computer World April 26, 2024
• Workers earning less than $58K a year could soon become eligible for overtime pay

  The overtime boost is expected to impact 4.3 million workers, 56% of whom are women and 24% of whom are workers of color, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  CNBC April 26, 2024
• National Study: Leelanau County Tops the Nation in Food Costs

  Leelanau County is the most expensive county in the country for food costs, according to a recent national study that’s making the rounds on social media and internet forums.

  The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit think tank, produces a Family Budget Calculator each year. EPI says the calculator “measures the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living.” Costs tied to housing, food, childcare, heath care and more are drawn from diverse data sets and incorporated into the calculator.

  Leelanau Ticker April 26, 2024
• What you need to know about new overtime rule that will benefit millions

  An Economic Policy Institute analysis of the rule found that 4.3 million more workers will be eligible for overtime pay because of the rule. That includes 2.4 million more women and 1 million more people of color.

  The Washington Post April 26, 2024
• A $100,000 salary no longer buys you a middle-class lifestyle. Here’s why it costs so much more now.

  In an analysis of the cost of basic necessities by the Economic Policy Institute, median annual expenses for a family with two adults and two children in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas were $104,760. This means that in about half of those areas, the cost was higher than that. The nonprofit think tank’s 2024 family budget calculator does not include retirement, college or emergency savings, which are often critical factors for long-term financial security.

  To compensate for the cost of necessities exceeding median income, ‘a lot of people are making compromises in one way or another.’Zane Mokhiber, director of data management and analysis at the Economic Policy Institute.

  MarketWatch April 26, 2024
• Conservatives’ savage child labor agenda wants kids working more for less

  Worse, according to the Economic Policy Institute, this is part of “a coordinated campaign by conservative groups” that are going state-by-state with the ultimate goal of weakening protections at the federal level.

  The Hill April 26, 2024
• What HR leaders, recruiters, employers need to know about FTC noncompete ban

  About half of private-sector businesses in the U.S. require at least some employees to enter noncompete agreements, according to a 2019 study from the Economic Policy Institute.

  Worklife News April 26, 2024
• 4 Million More Workers Could Be Eligible For Overtime Pay Under New Biden Rule

  The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, projected that more than half the beneficiaries of the new regulation would be women, and nearly a quarter would be workers of color. The group also argued that automatic increases to the salary threshold were essential to keeping overtime protections robust.

  Heidi Shierholz, EPI’s president, wrote in a blog post that the regulation would give employers more “skin in the game” when they expect employees to work excessive hours. Some employers, she noted, will simply raise workers’ salaries above the new threshold in order to avoid having to deal with overtime pay.

  “As a result, these workers will either get those extra hours back or they will get higher wages when they do work long hours — whether through salary increases or by earning time-and-a-half overtime pay,” Shierholz said.

  Huffpost April 26, 2024
• Why Workers Need Social Security AND Retirement Savings Act (RSAA)

  40 years of regressive tweaks and tax breaks have hit these workers harder than the other over half of workers, and over 80% of low-income workers don’t have any retirement plan at work. (For more evidence on all of this, see the Older Workers and Retirement Chartbook by the Economic Policy Institute and the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis.)

  Forbes April 26, 2024