A variety of negative responses followed the decision, including proposals for proxies for and refinements of race-conscious admissions. Some commentators argued that colleges should simply refuse to comply. Richard Rothstein, a fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in the Atlantic, “University presidents should have no less courage. They should continue to implement race-specific affirmative action, in defiance of the Supreme Court.”
The American Conservative
December 15, 2023
A 2022 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a research and policy organization in Washington, D.C., that looks at the impact on workers of economic trends and policies, listed delivery drivers as one of 11 occupations with workers “particularly vulnerable to illegal misclassification.”
“We’re literally talking about generations of policymaking and struggle that workers have engaged in to set some basic expectations and standards in our history, and also the contemporary expectation that most U.S. residents have about some basic, very minimal floors that we want to set for standards in our labor market,” said Jennifer Sherer, director of the State Worker Power Initiative at EPI.
Wisconsin Examiner
December 15, 2023
“We’re still seeing the effects — and I think some of it’s still invisible — of the COVID relief wrap-up,” he said.
Those programs kept millions of Americans out of poverty before they were ended, according to analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a-left-leaning think tank.
WMRA Public Radio
December 15, 2023
Inflation can have many roots. Typically, it’s caused by “a macroeconomic excess of spending over the economy’s relative ability to produce goods and services,” said Josh Bivens, the director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington D.C.
That means more people are wanting items and services than there is adequate supply, leading producers to raise prices.
USA Today
December 15, 2023
“The household survey confirms the strength exhibited by the payroll survey,” the Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould wrote Friday. “Here, we can look under the hood of the labor market data and explore differences by gender, age, and race/ethnicity. As the unemployment rate dropped, the prime-age employment rate ticked up to 80.7%.”
CNN Business
December 15, 2023
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
Governments have until the end of next year to finalize their ARPA plans. According to the latest numbers from the Treasury Department, state governments have yet to allocate about 30 percent of their funds. They’ve only spent about half of it — and local governments have done even less. That has to happen by 2026. Dave Kamper, a senior state policy coordinator and analyst, has been watching the data for the Economic Policy Institute.
“State and local governments are not used to having this much unspecified money. And I think we’ve seen a lot of decision paralysis on the part of, especially, local governments — where they just have so many things they could spend the money on, that they’re having hard time deciding,” says Kamper.
WAMC Northeast Public Radio
December 15, 2023
“Labor law remains so incredibly weak that it’s still a massive impediment to union organizing,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute. “Employers still have enormous power to crush union organizing.”
The situation especially presents an uphill battle for newly formed unions seeking to sign a contract. But it also threatens established organized labor, Shierholz said.
Bloomberg Law
December 15, 2023
Minneapolis Star Tribune
December 15, 2023
Wheeler says workers in leisure and hospitality and wholesale and retail trade — who are more likely to be involuntarily part time — have been finding full-time work.
And the Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould says: “That can make a meaningful difference in how much money they have to spend and how they can provide for themselves and their families.”
Marketplace
December 15, 2023