Lawmakers in 14 states — including Wisconsin — have proposed rolling back child labor laws, according to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.
Wisconsin Public Radio
December 21, 2023
Let’s travel back to 2022. It was the year of midterm elections, the easing of COVID-19, Kim Kardashian dating Pete Davidson and “extremely low headline unemployment,” said Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute.
In any given month that year, the unemployment rate hovered around 3.6%. But if you look at how many people were unemployed over the whole year, it was a different story.
“The unemployment rate was 7.6%,” said Shierholz. “So twice as many people experienced unemployment at some point during the year than, you know, the average monthly unemployment rate in 2022.”
That 7.6% is the lowest proportion in the history of that data, which the government started collecting in 1958. The historic low came during the “great resignation,” when many Americans found it easy to switch jobs.
“People were quitting their job and in many cases, just finding another job without having to face any gap, any gap in their paychecks and any gap in time worked,” Shierholz said.
Marketplace
December 21, 2023
The State of California’s hourly minimum wage is $15.50, the third highest in the nation, trailing only the District of Columbia at $17 and Washington State at $15.74. But just as each state’s minimum wage can supersede the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, more than two dozen cities across California, including West Hollywood and several in the Bay Area, have higher minimum wages than the state, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
New York Times
December 21, 2023
Proponents of higher minimum wages say that the federal threshold is so low that it results in poverty for many families. The federal minimum wage has lost nearly 30% of its purchasing power since it was last raised in 2009, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Washington Examiner
December 21, 2023
Mainstream progressives who are clear about first principles are not among the defectors to the right. Could you imagine, say, Elizabeth Warren switching sides just because the battles she fights are hard? Or anti-monopoly crusaders like Lina Khan or Matt Stoller? Or our friends at the Economic Policy Institute?
American Prospect
December 21, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, at least 10 states introduced or passed bills weakening the protections for working minors in the last two years, with several bills backed by regional restaurant associations. McDonald’s did not respond to a request for comment on its opinion of those bills.
HR Dive
December 21, 2023
The Center for Popular Democracy, an assemblage of community groups and the Economic Policy Institute projected in 2019 that 80% of private sector, nonunion workers would be subject to mandatory arbitration by 2024.
Capital & Main
December 21, 2023
“While federal agencies are ramping up enforcement of child labor protections in response to increasing violations, industry groups are working to roll back child labor protections via state legislation,” the Economic Policy Institute reported in May.
Raw Story
December 21, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the compensation paid to the CEOs of the largest US companies has increased 13-fold since 1978, whereas the compensation paid to regular workers has risen by a mere 15%.
CEO World Magazine
December 21, 2023
“Workers are striking and forming unions because the US economy has churned out radically uneven income growth for decades, stemming from unbalanced bargaining power in the labor market,” said Margaret Poydock, a senior policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute.
Yahoo Finance
December 21, 2023