Figures from the Economic Policy Institute in 2021 showed that 92% of Dollar General employees were making less than $15 per hour. Compare that with Walmart, where 51% were pulling in wages under that threshold, or Whole Foods where it was just 1%.
Daily Meal
January 12, 2024
Higher minimum wages, a result of ballot measures, legislation, and inflation adjustments, went into effect this week across 22 states. The new wage floor gives an economic boost to nearly 10 million workers, according to a recent estimate from the progressive think tank the Economic Policy Institute.
The Lever
January 12, 2024
In 2023, the national unemployment rate rose faintly from 3.6 percent to 3.7 percent, but overall the labor market remained stable, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Discover Magazine
January 12, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), CEO pay declined slightly in 2022. Nevertheless, the cumulative increase over the period between 1978 and 2022 was over 1,200 percent dwarfing the rawboned 15.3 percent bump to workers’ pay.
Jacobin
January 12, 2024
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute in a report last year estimated that a truck driver treated as a contractor earns up to $18,000 less per year than one who is deemed an employee, while construction workers’ earnings drop by nearly $17,000 and home health aides lose out on up to $9,500 in pay and benefits.
Reuters
January 12, 2024
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, added that lower wage workers in particular have seen that increased purchasing power for longer.
“For the last six months, the average hourly earnings for private sector workers has been beating inflation so their purchasing power has increased and on average, over the last few months, we also know from other data that lower wage workers have been seeing stronger wage growth,” she said. “They’ve been beating inflation for a lot longer. Overall, the purchasing power has certainly been increasing as inflation has been coming down faster.”
States Newsroom
January 12, 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
And while there appears to be no chance of either happening with Republicans in the majority in the House, the Economic Policy Institute reports that 22 US states and 38 cities and counties raised their minimum wages this month. The highest state minimum wage is now Washington’s $16.28, and the highest local one is $20.29 (albeit for large employers only) in the Seattle suburb of Tukwila.
Bloomberg
January 10, 2024
The traditional set-up of manager-employee relations often assumes that a worker-manager relationship is inherently antagonistic. But negotiating a bargaining agreement does not have to be confrontational and can earn wins that work for both sides and make the workplace better.
“There will be some growing pains as things get established, but if you really embrace the mechanisms for transparency and communication and openness, it actually ends up being a real productivity and efficiency enhancer and really pays off over the long haul for the organization,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of EPI.
Prism Reports
January 10, 2024