While it’s unclear how much this might apply to US companies if TiSA is ultimately adopted, Daniel Costa at the think tank EPI says the “Movement of Natural Persons” provisions would likely apply to two multi-year “professional” visas, the L-1, for transferring executive, managerial or special “knowledge” workers within a multinational; and the B-1 for “business visitors” temporarily in the US to, for instance, attend a conference. Under TiSA, writes Costa, companies could more freely use certain visa-based workers. They might then avoid standard “guestworker” rules that require companies to “advertise jobs to U.S. workers, or to hire U.S. workers if they were equally or better qualified for job openings in their own country.”
The Nation
July 30, 2015
For many low-skilled workers, the paycheck is the end of the line. In industries such as retail and fast-food, labor groups are pushing to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. And even in jobs that have enjoyed bigger benefits, experts warn that workers don’t always come out ahead if they sacrifice traditional raises for other forms of compensation. “I see it mostly as a risk shift onto workers,” said Josh Bivens, research and policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post
July 29, 2015
Workers are creating more value for companies than they used to, but aren’t being compensated for it. Maybe you’ve even seen a graph like this one, from the Economic Policy Institute. The dark blue line shooting up at 45 degrees? That’s productivity—or economic output per hour of labor. The light blue line that nearly plateaus around the late 1970s? That’s compensation for production and nonsupervisory employees—wages and salary plus benefits for people who basically aren’t in management.
Slate
July 29, 2015
Valerie Wilson, director of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy, found that young women—ages 20 to 24—are especially likely to have multiple jobs relative to the rest of the population. In 2015, 6.7 percent of these young women held multiple jobs, compared with 4.6 percent of their male peers. Two decades ago, the two groups were slightly more in line: In 1994, 7.6 percent of women aged 20 to 24 had multiple jobs, compared with 6.3 percent of men the same age.
Why has the proportion of male multiple-job holders shrunk more than twice as quickly as the share of women? One explanation is the tenacious gender pay gap, Ms. Wilson said, although she notes that it is impossible to tell simply from the numbers whether the higher share of women juggling multiple jobs stems from economic necessity or a preference for part-time work. “Young women may be choosing to piece together multiple jobs because the jobs they hold pay less,” Ms. Wilson said.
Wall Street Journal
July 28, 2015
Despite the economic benefits, though, the visa programs for unskilled laborers, like most aspects of the country’s broken immigration system, are in need of reform. Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research for the Economic Policy Institute, said employers could easily abuse their temporary workers, who rely on their bosses for permission to remain in the country, citing a 2011 review of the student worker program, in which he found that employers often failed to provide their employees promised accommodations or benefits. “The employer essentially owns the guest worker visa, so if you’re fired you’re deportable,” Costa said. “So it makes workers afraid to complain, because if they do they have to leave the country.”
He added that the US government should institute greater safeguards for foreign workers, who are a “critical part of the economy.” “I’m less worried about the numbers [of visas] and more about creating a procedure that is fair for US and foreign workers, so foreign workers have more protections from retaliation and even wages,” Costa told me. “I think the candidates are making blanket statements that reducing immigration is going to open up jobs, but it’s not that simple.”
Vice News
July 28, 2015
A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute identified the irregular hours that go with many types of low-wage jobs as one of five socioeconomic disadvantages that depress student achievement. PICA’s parent training program tackles this head-on by getting parents ready for steady jobs with regular hours in job sectors that are compatible with child care and where there is demand.
National Journal
July 28, 2015
Thanks to a high cost of living, the $7.75 minimum wage in Hawaii is “worth” just $6.67, lower than in any other state. Other states with a particularly low-value minimum wage include New Hampshire, where the $7.25 minimum is worth just $6.85. In Maryland, the $8.25 wage feels more like $7.44.
“Even in some states that have enacted higher minimum wages most recently, the relative value of those is still quite low when you’ve made this adjustment,” says David Cooper, an analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, which often advocates for pro-labor policies.
The Washington Post
July 27, 2015
Likewise, businesses in high-cost cities often have transient customers who are less price-sensitive, making it easier for them to partly offset higher wages through price increases. “Some of these cities are tourist destinations,” said David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute. “Folks go and spend the money anyway.” Businesses in less-frequently visited places do not have the same luxury.
The New York Times
July 27, 2015
For years, the Change to Win labor coalition has been on the forefront of the push to increase labor standards for federal contract work. The issue of low wage workers contracted by the government was first illuminated back in 2000 by the Economic Policy Institute, with a study that showed more than 10 percent of federal contract workers made less than a living wage.
The American Prospect
July 27, 2015
CEOs at the largest companies in the U.S. made more than 300 times the compensation of the average worker in 2014, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.
Fortune
July 27, 2015
The Boston Globe
July 27, 2015
On the policy side, Robert E. Scott from the Economic Policy Institute explained NAFTA’s impact in December 2013: Former President Bill Clinton claimed that NAFTA would create an “export boom to Mexico” that would create 200,000 jobs in two years and a million jobs in five years, “many more jobs than will be lost” due to rising imports. The economic logic behind his argument was clear: Trade creates new jobs in exporting industries and destroys jobs when imports replace the output of domestic firms. Fast forward 20 years and it’s clear that things didn’t work out as Clinton promised. NAFTA led to a flood of outsourcing and foreign direct investment in Mexico. U.S. imports from Mexico grew much more rapidly than exports, leading to growing trade deficits, as shown in the Figure. Jobs making cars, electronics, and apparel and other goods moved to Mexico, and job losses piled up in the United States, especially in the Midwest where those products used to be made. By 2010, trade deficits with Mexico had eliminated 682,900 good U.S. jobs, most (60.8 percent) in manufacturing.
Salon
July 27, 2015
More than 8 million jobs were lost in the recession and while the economy has recouped those losses plus 3.5 million more, the population also has risen over those seven years, said Elise Gould, senior economist, Economic Policy Institute. Hiring has simply not caught up to where it should be. Participation has fallen because there aren’t enough jobs, she said. “I think a lot of it has to do with the weak labor market.”
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
July 27, 2015
EPI research associate Richard Rothstein’s blog post on the legacy of government-sponsored segregation was featured in a Huffington Post article on Baltimore’s racial tensions.
The Huffington Post
July 24, 2015
The Boston Globe highlighted data from EPI’s report on irregular scheduling, including the fact that about 17 percent of the workforce has an unstable work schedule.
The Boston Globe
July 24, 2015
The Wall Street Journal also cited findings from EPI’s recent report on CEO pay, including how average top CEOs now make over 300 times as much as typical workers.
Wall Street Journal
July 24, 2015
According to OppNet, less than 10 percent of low-income students who start college will graduate and find jobs. For all young graduates in 2014, the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent, with underemployment at 16.8 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post
July 24, 2015
Robert Scott, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute called Rubio’s vision of the future “a pipe dream” at a time when the U.S. trade deficit is growing. “Foreign suppliers are eating the heart out of the manufacturing economy,” Scott said. “It’s not clear he understands what the trade deficit means for the economy.”
Reuters
July 24, 2015
According to the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, the majority of Americans have faced wage stagnation for the past 35 years, and it is a major factor the rise of family income stagnation and income inequality. Furthermore, the failure of wages to grow highlights gender and racial wage gaps.
The Christian Science Monitor
July 24, 2015
Despite these tales of success, the current economy is one of the least promising for young workers. A May 2015 report by the Economic Policy Institute found that college graduates this year earn wages 2.5 percent less than what graduates earned in 2000. Furthermore, the unemployment rate for young college grads is 7.2 percent, and the underemployment rate, or rate of graduates working jobs they are overqualified for, is 14.9 percent. So is becoming a millionaire in today’s economy a one-in-a-million chance for young people? Some economic experts say it is. “The economy is a difficult place for them right now, and it is hard for them just to get by, let alone accumulate wealth,” says Alyssa Davis, an Economy Policy Institute research assistant and co-author of the report.
U.S. News & World Report
July 24, 2015
Since the start of 2014, 14 states have boosted their hourly rate, and the effective minimum wage has increased in 26 states and the District of Columbia. The minimum pay tops the federal mandate in 29 U.S. states. The numbers come from the Economic Policy Institute, which this week published an interactive map that shows where things stood as of July 10.
CBS Moneywatch
July 24, 2015
To identify where these expensive places are, FindTheHome crunched the numbers to find the metro areas in the country with the highest monthly cost of living for a family of four, where both parents are employed and file federal income taxes jointly. The data comes from the most recent 2013 Economic Policy Institute (EPI) numbers, adjusted for inflation to 2015 dollars.
Houston Chronicle
July 24, 2015
Average pay for a big-company CEOs is $16.3 million, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. In 2014, that was 303 times what the typical worker earned. The CEO-to-worker gap today isn’t the highest ever (in 2007 it was 345-to-1) but it has exploded since 1978, the point at which income inequality in the United States generally started to worsen.
Yahoo Finance
July 24, 2015
New York ranks among the top 10 states for its minimum wage, but factor in the cost of living, and it falls to the bottom 10. West Virginia’s middle-of-the-pack minimum wage, on the other hand, is actually fairly valuable compared with other states, when considering prices. “Even in some states that have enacted higher minimum wages most recently, the relative value of those is still quite low when you’ve made this adjustment,” said David Cooper, an analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, which often advocates for pro-labor policies. The measure factors in goods, housing and other services, with housing showing a much wider gap between extremes than the other categories. “That is the single largest driver when it comes to regional price differences, so policymakers wanting to do something about this or sensitive to these things need to look at what housing policies look like in these regions,” Cooper said.
The Washington Post
July 23, 2015
Historically, the poverty rate has tracked the overall economy, but that’s no longer true. The period between the 2001 and 2007 recessions was the first expansionary business cycle on record in which the poverty rate increased, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of Census Bureau data.
Harper's Magazine
July 23, 2015
But even this number grossly underestimates what families need to get by, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator. A single parent with three kids living in El Paso, Texas, for example, would need to earn $68,393 to live comfortably and cover the basic expenses like housing, food, transportation, healthcare, and childcare. In Spokane, Wash., that number is $72,050. In Chattanooga, Tenn., it’s $63,592. In Rochester, New York, a single parent raising three kids needs to bring in $102,417.
Fusion
July 23, 2015
An increasing number of American children from low-income backgrounds are coming to kindergarten lagging in both academic and non-cognitive skills critical to educational success, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute. As the report states: “Such early-in-life inequalities point to the need for substantial interventions to reduce them, including early educational interventions, to ensure that children arrive in kindergarten ready to learn and for compensatory policies to support these children throughout the school years (from kindergarten through 12th grade).”
The Washington Post
July 22, 2015
That increase testifies to how little the economic recovery has been felt in America’s poorest households. While the top 1% of wage earners saw their real incomes grow by 34.7% in the post-recession years, hourly wages for the vast majority of workers fell over the same period, according to data from Berkley economist Emmanuel Saez and the Economic Policy Institute.
MSNBC.com
July 22, 2015
For decades, currency manipulation has been used by U.S. trading partners, including Japan, China, Malaysia and Singapore, to gain a competitive advantage that shutters factories, hurts workers and devastates communities. The Economic Policy Institute estimates the U.S. could add as many as5.8 million jobs by eliminating currency manipulation.
USA Today
July 20, 2015
The federation in a report this year found retailers alone would hire 117,500 part-time workers as a result of raising the threshold to $984 a week, a slightly higher level than the administration ultimately proposed. “The more important result of the rule will be job creation,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. His organization has strongly advocated for the threshold to be raised for the first time in more than a decade. “Hours will be shifted from currently uncompensated salary workers to newly compensated hourly people.”
Wall Street Journal
July 20, 2015