Media clips
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Who are the unionized construction workers and who are the nonunion construction workers? Last year, the New York Building Congress reported that the construction workforce is about 40% white, 37% Hispanic, 13% African-American and 10% Asian-American. The assumption is that union workers are primarily white and nonunion workers primarily not. However, the unions point to a 2013 blog post by the Economic Policy Institute that claimed 21% of unionized workers are black. It was admittedly preliminary research, and a follow-up study has yet to be released. This is important because this is a winners-losers situation. Who will get the jobs if union labor is required on affordable housing, and who will lose jobs?
Crain's New York May 5, 2016 -
But a new paper from Josh Bivens, director of research and policy at the Economic Policy Institute, and Dean Baker, co-director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, suggests that interest rates aren’t a good tool for popping bubbles at all.
“The housing bubble was an international phenomenon,” Bivens tells The Week. “You had a lot of different countries with quite different monetary policy tightness see very large increases in home prices. So it’s a little hard to say it was all about the interest rates.”
The Week May 5, 2016 -
Amid a national debate over the $15 minimum wage and two competing proposals for implementing it in the District, a new report found that 14 percent of the D.C. workforce would be directly or indirectly affected by such an increase. And of the estimated 114,000 people who would benefit, 80 percent are workers of color, according to the Economic Policy Institute study.
The report, though, uses the example of states that already guarantee the same minimum for tipped workers to argue in favor the single wage. “This is not some radical new idea. There are eight states that have already eliminated their tipped minimum wage,” said David Cooper, the author of the report and a senior analyst at EPI, adding that all but Hawaii have data going back decades. The report cites a study that showed tipped workers made 20 percent more per hour (measuring both base pay and tips) in states that had a single minimum wage in 2013, in comparison to those that used the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour.
DCist May 5, 2016 -
The Economic Policy Institute said the rule would restore a protection that has been missing for some time. “It’s a very, very simple rule to implement,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the D.C. think tank. “All it requires is looking at your workforce and seeing how you’re paying overtime. It’s something an automated payroll processing system could do in five minutes or a human resource manager could do in a couple hours.”
The Hill May 4, 2016 -
Supporters hope the new measure will help stem a decades-long stagnation in U.S. wages. Between 1979 and 2013, middle-income wages rose just 6%, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Low-income wages did even worse, actually declining by 5%. Meanwhile very- high-income wages rose 41%.
Teen Vogue May 4, 2016 -
Officially, Trump has promised to rework the nation’s immigration laws into a system that requires companies to hire Americans first before considering foreign workers. Yet Trump has defended his use of temporary immigrant workers at his luxury Mar-a-Lago resort, saying he has “no choice but to do it.” Two House lawmakers who signed on to Long’s letter — Republican Reps. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina and Chris Collins of New York—have also endorsed Trump. “People who like him are seeing him as this restrictionist, but in practice, it’s really hard to tell what he’s going to be,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “But he can certainly influence the bill.”
Politico May 4, 2016 -
The Trump Company is now appealing that decision. If Trump loses again, his company is legally obligated to negotiate a contract. That doesn’t mean they will though. “If an employer is really hostile and determined to fight, they have legal routes that can keep the union from getting to the point of negotiating a contract for years and years,” said Ross Eisenbrey with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Public Radio International May 4, 2016 -
And while the economy has improved since the Great Recession ended, it’s still not back to precrisis levels. The class of 2016 will enter a job market that continues to suffer from higher levels of unemployment for young Americans and relatively stagnant wage trends, according to a study from left-leaning Economic Policy Institute last month. The percentage of recent grads who are “idled”—meaning neither employed nor in school—is about 10 percent now, up from 8.4 percent in 2007.
CBS Moneywatch May 4, 2016 -
If the last few years are any indication, the average Class of 2016 graduate will leave school with five-figure debt. That albatross likely will force graduates to accept jobs without long-term prospects for career or wage growth, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute. Analysts at the think tank say that despite the rosy overall employment picture, graduates actually face a tougher labor market than they would have before the 2008 recession. Degree-holders, they say, still contend with elevated levels of unemployment and underemployment, and a large share are neither employed nor pursuing advanced degrees—in other words, they are idling. “Although there have been small improvements, there is still a lot that’s problematic about this economy for young college grads,” said Teresa Kroeger, a research assistant at EPI who co-authored the study. “Wages are still performing poorly. And we see still disparities between genders and racial groups.”
The Washington Post May 3, 2016 -
“Well, only about 1.3 million people earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. That’s a small number, that’s like one percent of the workforce, but of course many more people earn a little bit more than the minimum wage and half of all states have a minimum wage above the federal level, so another way to think about it, the economic policy institute says that 53.6 million workers, a third of the labor force, earns less than $15 an hour.”
Here & Now May 3, 2016 -
If that happens, anyone making between $23,500 and $47,000 would automatically become eligible for overtime pay. In that case, 12.5 million workers may benefit directly, according to estimates from the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “All told, about 33% of the workforce will be eligible for overtime, regardless of their duties on the job,” EPI estimated.
CNN Money May 3, 2016 -
In fact, the labor-friendly Economic Policy Institute reported in March that Indiana lost more jobs proportionally in 2015 due to the U.S. trade deficit with Pacific Rim countries than any other state except Michigan. The EPI was looking specifically at trade between the U.S. and the 11 other nations that have signed onto the impending free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The EPI also found Michigan had lost 214,600 jobs since 2011 as a result of U.S. trade deficits with those 11 countries, adding up to 5.12 percent of employment in the state. No other state came anywhere near those losses, but Indiana got closest, losing 103,800 jobs over the same period. That loss amounted to 3.54 percent of employment in the state, the institute reported.
International Business Times May 3, 2016 -
The biggest difference between schools I attended a half-century ago and schools I visit now is special education: It took a while for our country to grasp how to help students with extra needs. Many were amazed when Richard Rothstein and Karen Hawley Miles of the Economic Policy Institute revealed that about 60 percent of increased education spending between 1967 and 1991 went to special and compensatory education for students with disabilities or disadvantaged backgrounds. Rothstein and Miles spent months prying the data out of obtuse school budgets, and there has been little work like that since. We journalists mostly ignore special-education developments. But now, thankfully, we have another outpouring of surprises on how special-education money is being spent—and how little we understand it.
The Washington Post May 2, 2016 -
The gender “wage gap” has been growing wider and begins earlier than previously understood, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute. Young female graduates earn only 79 percent of what their male counterparts do – a decline from 84 percent last year. (Danielle Paquette)
The Washington Post May 2, 2016 -
There are similar trends at work in the United States, the Economic Policy Institute reports—including for young college graduates, whose inflation-adjusted earnings are lower than they were in the late 1990s.
The Atlantic May 2, 2016 -
While many Silicon Valley companies such as Apple and Intel tend to hire more highly skilled workers and pay six-figure salaries, the bulk of H-1B jobs go to lower-level IT workers who are often paid close to the minimum allowed by the visa program, about $60,000, says Ronil Hira, a Howard University public policy professor and researcher at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank focused on labor issues.
Hira, like others critical of the H-1B program, says most U.S. companies are not using the H-1B visa “as a way to alleviate a shortage of STEM-educated U.S. workers; they use it to primarily cut labor costs.”
San Francisco Chronicle May 2, 2016 -
There are other criticisms of the H-1B program. Ron Hira, an Economic Policy Institute research associate, associate professor of public policy at Howard University, and author of Outsourcing America, has argued that the visa program is in essence indentured servitude. The employer controls the visa and therefore the employee’s ability to stay in the U.S. Many H-1B holders are from economically disadvantaged situations or see the H-1B visa as the only pathway to permanent residency status. Therefore, they may be willing to work longer hours and make efforts that U.S. citizens would not. Hira also argues that by providing a low cost alternative for employers the program drives down wages for Americans.
Forbes May 2, 2016 -
Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said about 5 million new workers will automatically become eligible, and that it would boost employee wages across the country by $1.3 billion. The Economic Policy Institute is even more generous, estimating some 13.5 million workers will have a new or stronger right to overtime pay.
Detroit News May 2, 2016 -
The Labor Department calculated that the overtime rule, as proposed, would extend coverage to nearly five million people, of whom 1.2 million would receive a wage hike, with the rest getting a reduction in hours worked. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, put the number of affected workers at more like 13.5 million. Lowering the rule’s threshold to $47,000, EPI calculates, would reduce the number of affected workers to 12.5 million, or 23 percent of the salaried workforce.
Politico May 2, 2016 -
But Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, is among those who is happy Metro has strong unions. “If you left it to management, if you didn’t have a union to push and protect the workers, God only knows how bad the system would be,” Eisenbrey said. Perhaps it’s because Americans have been taught for decades now to find fault with unions and workers rather than corporate and government managers. Perhaps it’s because of the American dream teaches that everyone can be a millionaire, and if you’re not you’re not really trying. But every worker should insist on adequate retirement benefits. The country’s already headed toward a crisis as people cease working without enough savings to last them through old age, Eisenbrey said. “The thought that people don’t need a pension—it’s crazy,” Eisenbrey says. “Of course they need a pension. Or if they don’t have a pension, they need the employer to put in something on the order of 9 to 12 percent a year into their 401 (k) plan – which is probably more than what WMATA is putting into their pension plan every year.”
The Washington Post April 29, 2016 -
Pay disparities between men and women start earlier in their careers than frequently assumed and have significantly widened for young workers in the past year, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. Paychecks for young female college graduates are about 79 percent as large as those of their male peers, the think tank found—a serious drop from 84 percent last year.
Young men with a college degree make an average hourly wage of $20.94 right after graduation, according to the EPI figures, compared with the average hourly wage of $16.58 for women. That’s a $9,000 annual difference. Teresa Kroeger, who co-authored the paper, said rising wages for men at the top of the income distribution appear to be exacerbating the chasm. “We suspect this is following the overall trend of the economy,” she said. Men tend to dominate the workforce in the highest-paid career fields, Kroeger said—technology and finance, for example. These fields have enjoyed more wage growth over the past year as pay in others has stagnated. That may explain part of the recently ballooning gap.
The Washington Post April 29, 2016 -
The Fed next meets in June, and its most recent forecast indicated plans for two small 0.25 percentage point rate hikes this year. “Today’s anemic growth numbers fully justify the Federal Reserve’s decision this week to not further increase short-term interest rates,” said Josh Bivens, research and policy director for the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank focused on the needs of low- and middle-income workers.
Los Angeles Times April 29, 2016 -
On many measures, both groups are among the nation’s most economically strained. Hourly wages for white men with only a high school education, adjusted for inflation, were virtually no higher in 2011 than in 1989, and actually lower than in 2000, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think-tank. Meanwhile, since 2000, as the EPI noted recently, inflation-adjusted wages have remained stagnant for young college graduates, and declined slightly for young workers with only a high-school degree.
The Atlantic April 29, 2016 -
WP’s Danielle Paquette: “Pay disparities between men and women start earlier in their careers than frequently assumed and have significantly widened for young workers in the past year, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. Paychecks for young female college graduates are about 79 percent as large as those of their male peers, the think tank found—a serious drop from 84 percent last year.
Politico April 29, 2016 -
The results could be eye-popping, based on figures produced for Variety by two firms that track executive and worker pay. The ratio of CEO to median worker pay stood at 20-to-1 in 1965, and had ballooned to more than 300-to-1 by 2014, according to the labor-affiliated Economic Policy Institute. But the prominent companies measured by compensation research firms PayScale and Equilar are paying the boss much, much more than the average worker. Some of the ratios of CEO-to-worker pay are as high as 900-to-1.
Variety April 28, 2016 -
American women who are about to graduate from college might want to keep this sobering fact in mind: When they enter the workforce, they’re likely to make a lot less money than the guys sitting next to them at graduation, according to a new Economic Policy Institute study.
U.S. News & World Report April 28, 2016 -
Manufacturing is a major industry in Indiana, which holds its primary next week. A 2015 report by the Economic Policy Institute found that manufacturing makes up a larger share of Indiana’s total employment than in any other state.
The Hill April 28, 2016 -
Furthermore, the argument that all-white male candidate pools are due to skills shortages among people of color and women also doesn’t hold up. In 2014, 29.9% of men and 30.2% of women had graduated college, according to the US census bureau. A new report published by the Economic Policy Institute also found that recent young black college graduates aged 20 t0 24 “currently have an unemployment rate of 9.4% – higher than the peak unemployment rate for young white college during the recession”, which was 9%.
The Guardian April 28, 2016 -
But a new study out Tuesday argues that the gulf forms well before that. At the earliest stages of their careers, female workers with a college degree in the US earn an average hourly wage of $16.58, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning Washington think tank. Young men with a college degree, meanwhile, earn an average of $20.94 an hour – $4.36 more than their female counterparts. That shakes out to a $9,000 annual pay gap.
Christian Science Monitor April 28, 2016 -
Of course, millions of women in this country aren’t in this fortunate position, and that’s why I’m writing this. Across 33 states and Washington, D.C., the cost of full-time infant care for one child is more than in-state tuition at a four-year public college. For families with two children, child care costs range from about half as much as rent in San Francisco to nearly three times rent in Binghamton, New York, according to a 2015 report by the Economic Policy Institute. Tax credits and subsidies exist for working families, but they are paltry compared to what you need to pay to have someone watch your child while you commit to a career.
Good Housekeeping April 28, 2016
