Florida is at least the 16th state to introduce roll back child labor protections in the past two years, and the 13th state to introduce such legislation in 2023, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The 74
January 19, 2024
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows young workers to be paid below minimum wage—also known as a “subminimum wage” or “youth opportunity wage”—on a temporary basis. In D.C. and nine states including Washington, Illinois, and New Hampshire, employers can pay young workers subminimum wages permanently under state laws, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) published Jan. 8.
Quartz
January 19, 2024
De facto school segregation has nonetheless persisted, with the Economic Policy Institute reporting in 2020 that Black students are more than twice as likely to attend high-poverty schools as their white peers and that 60% of Black students are concentrated in high-poverty schools predominantly serving children of color.
Forbes
January 19, 2024
Putting aside billionaires, the gap between CEOs and workers alone has exploded over the last several decades. Between 1978 and 2022, top CEO compensation rose more than 1,200%, compared with the 15.3% rise in a typical worker’s compensation, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
MarketWatch
January 19, 2024
The need for paid sick days to help stabilize workers’ finances is clear through the data, according to an Economic Policy Institute report released in November. Compared to 63% of private sector workers having access to paid sick days in 2010, 78% now do, and during the same period, the percentage of the lowest wage workers who had paid sick days almost doubled, the think tank found. The report’s authors also calculated what workers would be giving up in housing, groceries, transportation and other essentials for their unpaid sick days.
“If we think about taking off work without any assets or savings, that could have a very big impact on the family budget,” said Hilary Wething, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, and one of the report’s authors. “If a worker loses wages for taking off five days for example, if they have RSV or their kid has RSV that could be their entire grocery budget for the month. If they take three days off, it could be the entire monthly budget of utilities and two days could be a monthly budget of gas, which could make it difficult to get to work. You can see how a series of events could cascade for them and become a much bigger problem than it had to be.”
States Newsroom
January 19, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute, Meta employs so many H-1B workers that it has declared itself an “H-1B dependent” firm in government filings for years because more than 15% of its total U.S. workforce is H-1B workers.
The Mercury News
January 19, 2024
“The franchise model is a major factor in child labor violations because it incentivizes a race to the bottom in terms of labor standards,” said Nina Mast, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute who researches child labor laws.
The Washington Post
January 19, 2024
Child labor laws vary across states, and recent findings from the Economic Policy Institute reveal alarming trends: violations of child labor laws have surged by 37% in the past year, and proposals to weaken child labor protections are on the rise in multiple states.
Quality Assurance Magazine
January 17, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute’s study of “youth subminimum wages” showed 34 states and DC engaged in practices that paid young workers less than minimum wage and also kept them from protections inherent in minimum wage.
The EPI even found that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act “discriminates against young workers based on their age, student status or occupation.”
Ohio Capital Journal
January 17, 2024