A 2022 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a research and policy organization in Washington, D.C., that looks at the impact on workers of economic trends and policies, listed delivery drivers as one of 11 occupations with workers “particularly vulnerable to illegal misclassification.”
“We’re literally talking about generations of policymaking and struggle that workers have engaged in to set some basic expectations and standards in our history, and also the contemporary expectation that most U.S. residents have about some basic, very minimal floors that we want to set for standards in our labor market,” said Jennifer Sherer, director of the State Worker Power Initiative at EPI.
Wisconsin Examiner
December 15, 2023
“We’re still seeing the effects — and I think some of it’s still invisible — of the COVID relief wrap-up,” he said.
Those programs kept millions of Americans out of poverty before they were ended, according to analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a-left-leaning think tank.
WMRA Public Radio
December 15, 2023
Inflation can have many roots. Typically, it’s caused by “a macroeconomic excess of spending over the economy’s relative ability to produce goods and services,” said Josh Bivens, the director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington D.C.
That means more people are wanting items and services than there is adequate supply, leading producers to raise prices.
USA Today
December 15, 2023
“The household survey confirms the strength exhibited by the payroll survey,” the Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould wrote Friday. “Here, we can look under the hood of the labor market data and explore differences by gender, age, and race/ethnicity. As the unemployment rate dropped, the prime-age employment rate ticked up to 80.7%.”
CNN Business
December 15, 2023
The measure to loosen child labor laws is part of a trend in certain states around the country. Florida is now the 16th state to introduce legislation rolling back child labor protections in the past two years and the 13th to do so this year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.
Florida Phoenix
December 15, 2023
Governments have until the end of next year to finalize their ARPA plans. According to the latest numbers from the Treasury Department, state governments have yet to allocate about 30 percent of their funds. They’ve only spent about half of it — and local governments have done even less. That has to happen by 2026. Dave Kamper, a senior state policy coordinator and analyst, has been watching the data for the Economic Policy Institute.
“State and local governments are not used to having this much unspecified money. And I think we’ve seen a lot of decision paralysis on the part of, especially, local governments — where they just have so many things they could spend the money on, that they’re having hard time deciding,” says Kamper.
WAMC Northeast Public Radio
December 15, 2023
“Labor law remains so incredibly weak that it’s still a massive impediment to union organizing,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute. “Employers still have enormous power to crush union organizing.”
The situation especially presents an uphill battle for newly formed unions seeking to sign a contract. But it also threatens established organized labor, Shierholz said.
Bloomberg Law
December 15, 2023
Minneapolis Star Tribune
December 15, 2023
Wheeler says workers in leisure and hospitality and wholesale and retail trade — who are more likely to be involuntarily part time — have been finding full-time work.
And the Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould says: “That can make a meaningful difference in how much money they have to spend and how they can provide for themselves and their families.”
Marketplace
December 15, 2023
“While the Fed watches decelerating nominal wage growth, real (inflation-adjusted) wages for workers continue to rise as price growth falls faster than nominal wage growth,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
U.S. News & World Report
December 15, 2023
On the other hand, Asian Americans saw a 0.4 percentage-point jump in the unemployment rate to 3.5%. This was accompanied by a decline in the participation rate for Asian workers to 65% from 65.3% in October.
“That uptick in unemployment is not because more Asian workers are flooding into the labor market, feeling optimistic about getting jobs. It’s actually accompanied by a fall in participation as well as a fall in employment,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told CNBC.
CNBC
December 15, 2023
A study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) showed that “Revenue replacement accounts for $19.8 billion (62%) of the $32 billion cities and counties have spent, compared with 45% of spending at the state level. Almost one in eight local governments have only spent funds on revenue replacement so far.” The study was released on March 21. The EPI, said that local and state governments need to continue to “build upon ARPA’s successes of the past two years.”
KELO
December 8, 2023
Between 1979 and 2021, the wages of Americans in the top 1% grew by 206%, after adjusting for inflation, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute. In the same years, wages for the bottom 90% grew by only 29%.
USA Today
December 8, 2023
“Race-blind admissions processes will further exacerbate existing inequalities and undermine the recognition of the unique challenges that Black, Hispanic, and Native American students encounter throughout the admissions process,” the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, warned.
BET.com
December 8, 2023
Violations of workers’ right to organize and form unions in the workplace isn’t uncommon. Employers are charged with breaking federal law in roughly 4 in 10 union elections, an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute found, which commonly happens in the form of disciplining or firing workers, or changing terms of their employment, in retaliation for organizing or for being vocally pro-union.
Orlando Weekly
December 8, 2023
Even after arbitration cases are allowed to move forward, they are not typically won by employees. In a 2015 report on the subject, the Economic Policy Institute noted that employees bound by arbitration clauses are not often successful in actual arbitration: “Employee win rates in mandatory arbitration are much lower than in either federal court or state court, with employees in mandatory arbitration winning only just about a fifth of the time.”
The Progressive Magazine
December 8, 2023
According to Economic Policy Institute research, nearly 90% of workers who would benefit from a higher minimum wage are 20 or older – and one-third are over 40.
The Journal Record (Oklahoma)
December 8, 2023
This research piece by our friends at the Economic Policy Institute explains just when employee free speech is protected and when it is not. As EPI explains, workers have suffered retaliation for failing to support the boss’s preferred political candidate, for refusing to attend mandatory Bible study, and for speaking out during COVID against unsafe working conditions.
The American Prospect
December 8, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute noted several states recently proposed or enacted laws extending the hours 14- and 15-year-olds can work. Both New Jersey and New Hampshire passed such laws in 2022. The New Hampshire law lowered the age for minors to bus tables where alcohol is served from 15 to 14 and increased the number of hours per week 16- and 17-year-olds can work. Bills have proposed paying young workers below a state’s minimum wage and allowing them to do more hazardous jobs.
The Duncan Banner
December 8, 2023
But Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Labor Department, is more optimistic. She believes that given the totality of job data (terminations, vacancies, entitlements, hours worked, wages), there is likely to be some slowdown in job creation; The apparent stability may be noise. But she believes this is the pattern one would expect as an economy approaches full employment: Monthly job gains and other measures are slowing. The key point is that we are slowly approaching the rate of employment growth that simply keeps pace with the growth of the working-age population – somewhere in the range of 75,000 to 100,000.
Financial Times
December 8, 2023
But low wages, which agriculture industry leaders say are necessary to keep U.S.-grown produce competitive, are another factor. Farmworkers in 2020 earned an average of $14.62 an hour, according to the Economic Policy Institute, and some earned less.
New York Times
December 8, 2023
A state child care task force report from last December found Washington’s child care market to be “broken.” The report pointed to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute that showed costs average around $14,500 per year.
The Columbian
December 8, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, since 1978, CEO pay increased more than 1,200%.
At the same time, the pay of the typical American workers rose 15.3%.
Robert Reich Substack
December 8, 2023
Between 1979 and 2021, the wages of Americans in the top 1% grew by 206%, after adjusting for inflation, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute. In the same years, wages for the bottom 90% grew by only 29%.
USA Today
December 8, 2023
According to a 2020 study by the Economic Policy Institute, teachers are paid an average of 20% less than similarly educated professionals.
The Connecticut Mirror
December 8, 2023
The forced arbitration issue has been highlighted as problematic by diverse voices from Josh Hammer to the Economic Policy Institute to Americans for Tax Reform. Ending forced arbitration should appeal to libertarians, free marketeers, and “new right” folks alike.
The American Conservative
December 8, 2023
It is estimated that by 2025 there will be 100,000 unfilled teaching positions, according to a 2019 Economic Policy Institute Report.
Visalia Times Delta
December 8, 2023
As a result, from 2019 to 2022, workers in the 10th percentile of earners saw wages grow by 9%, while top earners (or those in the 90th percentile) saw wages grow 4.9%, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute of Current Population Survey data.
Quartz
December 8, 2023