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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2024
We get a different view on raising the minimum wage from Sebastian Martinez Hickey, researcher for the EARN (Economic Analysis and Research Network) team at the Economic Policy Institute.
FAIR Counterspin
January 12, 2024
Luckily, a set of minimum wage increases for Florida workers began in September 2023, raising base pay by $1, up to $12 per hour. The minimum wage is set to hike to $16 per hour by the end of 2026, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Quartz
January 12, 2024
The present law exempts some nonprofit research organizations from the 85,000 H-1B annual cap. In its comments on the proposed rule, the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank, said the White House is loosening the definition of nonprofit research entities “for the express purpose of expanding eligibility” for H-1B visa groups. It argues that the rule change could enable, for instance, a nonprofit hospital to use H-1B workers to move IT jobs overseas.
Tech Target
January 12, 2024
But increasing the number of visas alone won’t solve the problem if corporate giants stay the course. If you look at the top companies sponsoring H-1B visas in 2023, it’s a virtual who’s who of Big Tech. 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.
CalMatters
January 12, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute, Florida is the 16th state so far where legislation has been proposed over the past two years to ease child labor restrictions, even though violations of child labor law have been on the rise.
Orlando Weekly
January 12, 2024
While 24 states have adopted the CROWN Act, Republican senators have successfully blocked the anti-discrimination bill’s passing on a federal level twice since its introduction in 2021. According to the Economic Policy Institute, legislators did not bring it before Congress in 2023.
Mother Jones
January 12, 2024