The measure to loosen child labor laws is part of a trend in certain states around the country. Florida is now the 16th state to introduce legislation rolling back child labor protections in the past two years and the 13th to do so this year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.
Florida Phoenix
December 15, 2023
Kyle Moore, economist with the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy, agreed that the banking system is simply not set up for people with low incomes.
“Cost is the primary reason that folks are un or under-banked,” said Moore. “And that can come in the form of a reaction to fees; banks might impose a minimum balance requirement. For a lot of different reasons, access to traditional banking services is costly.”
The Root
December 15, 2023
Today, nonwhite workers are driving gains in overall union membership: last year, the nation’s unionized workforce grew by 200,000, and workers of color accounted for the entire increase, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of federal labor statistics.
Newsweek
December 15, 2023
The top 1% of Americans earn over 26 times more than the bottom 99% and hold 21% of the nation’s total income, per the Economic Policy Institute. However, there’s some evidence that inequality has narrowed in recent years due to the strong wage gains of lower-income workers.
Business Insider
December 15, 2023
The federal Wage and Hour Division, in charge of investigating things like wage theft, suffers from “severe understaffing” and currently investigates fewer than 1% of farm employers per year, according to a 2023 report from the Economic Policy Institute.
Carolina Public Press
December 15, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator, for instance, a family of five in the Columbus metro area could expect close to $94,000 a year in expenses.
News 5 Cleveland
December 15, 2023
These rollbacks could jeopardize the health and safety of teenagers in school, she said, noting that research shows that fatigue from excessive work is tied to more car accidents and workplace injuries. She also said it could contribute to more teens dropping out of school, adding that high school graduation rates have risen in the wake of passage of stricter child labor laws.
“Are we committed as a society to ensuring equal opportunity, equal access to public education for every child no matter what their background is?” Sherer said. “Or are we willing to sort of open the door to going back to a world where a handful of wealthier children have full access to that kind of education and most others are in the workforce at younger and younger ages.”
Tampa Bay Times
December 15, 2023
According to an Economic Policy Institute report, CEO compensation has grown by 1,209% since 1978, while the typical worker’s compensation has only ticked up 15%.
Sports Illustrated
December 15, 2023
Since January 2014, 28 states and Washington, D.C., have changed their laws around minimum wage, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which has been tracking these changes nationwide.
Delaware News Journal
December 15, 2023
The effort comes not a moment too soon, as wage theft and labor law violations have notoriously cost California’s minimum-wage earners nearly $2 billion every year, with a study from the Economic Policy Institute highlighting that these violations “exceeds the value of property crimes committed in the United States each year.”
Hoodline
December 15, 2023