The only brief time since 1979 that we’ve had strong wage growth at all income levels was in the late 1990s under Bill Clinton (in fact, according to the Economic Policy Institute, wage growth then was strongest for the bottom 40 percent).
Daily Beast
April 13, 2015
In this mix, where does Hillary Clinton see labor reforms like strengthening workers’ ability to bargain collectively and paid family sick leave? How would she work with Congress to pass such measures? (Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute).
The Nation
April 13, 2015
Changes were then made to immigration law to reduce admissions, decreasing the foreign-born population until it fell to about 9.6 million by 1970. Meanwhile, during this low-immigration period, real median compensation for U.S. workers surged, increasing more than 90 percent from 1948 to 1973, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
American Prospect
April 10, 2015
Changes were then made to immigration law to reduce admissions, decreasing the foreign-born population until it fell to about 9.6 million by 1970. Meanwhile, during this low-immigration period, real median compensation for U.S. workers surged, increasing more than 90 percent from 1948 to 1973, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post
April 10, 2015
If you want a perspective on the losses from the trade status quo and so-called free trade agreements, you’ll find it at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, including this essay on potential job losses and lower wages if TPP is approved.
Seattle Times
April 10, 2015
The liberal Economic Policy Institute releases a new report this morning on workplace scheduling that confirms two commonly held assumptions: that poor workers are more likely to have erratic work schedules and that such scheduling has a negative effect on family life. “By industry, irregular scheduling is most prevalent in agriculture, personal services, business/ repair services, entertainment/recreation, finance/ insurance/real estate, retail trade, and transportation communications … The prevalence is reduced for union members, married workers, government employees, whites, men, and workers with a higher level of education.”
Politico
April 10, 2015
Thornswood’s experience is more widespread than you might think. At least 17 percent of all workers have irregular schedules that don’t look like the typical 9-5, Monday through Friday, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute. About 10 percent is given irregular and on-call shifts, while another 7 percent have split (two different shifts in one day) or rotating ones.
Think Progress
April 10, 2015
But Wyden opponents say his stance on trade is particularly problematic in Oregon, where more than 60,000 jobs have been lost in the past decade due to liberalized trade deals, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute.
Daily Beast
April 9, 2015
A Yale Law School student said in a panel discussion last month that Rolling Stone contributor Sabrina Rubin Erdely had contacted her as she narrowed her focus for what would be “A Rape on Campus,” the now-retracted expose on sexual assault at the University of Virginia. “She called me a couple months before and asked if I knew anyone at Yale,” said the student, Alexandra Brodsky, at a March 12 event presented by the American Constitution Society, the American Prospect and the Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post
April 9, 2015
That complaint about NAFTA, whatever its merits, is informing much of the liberal opposition to the TPP. It shouldn’t: Supporters and opponents of the TPP largely agree that its direct effect on the U.S. economy will be minor. “There are going to be very few jobs that will be affected,” said Robert Scott, the director of trade and manufacturing research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who opposes the deal.
The New Republic
April 8, 2015
Although hiring slowed, layoffs dropped sharply, providing some evidence that businesses might have temporarily put the brakes on filling their openings because of the cold winter. “The report generally corroborates that story, the recovery hasn’t stalled, but it isn’t doing much better than simply chugging along,” said Elise Gould, chief economist with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, in a blog post.state
The Hill
April 8, 2015
But more often than not, we’re being faced with a new issue of employment. Despite the fact the country is coming out of a recession, the Economic Policy Institute simply states people just aren’t getting jobs as easily, whether they have a college degree or not.
USA Today
April 7, 2015
According to research at the Economic Policy Institute, compensation for chief executives at publicly traded companies climbed 937 percent between 1978 and 2013, while the average worker’s compensation climbed just 10 percent.
Huffington Post
April 7, 2015
Across industries, CEO pay has risen over the past half-century in comparison with what the average worker earns. In 1965, the leaders of the top 350 publicly traded companies made an average of 20 times what the average worker did, but by 2013 that had ballooned to about 296 times, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank affiliated with labor unions.
Wall Street Journal
April 6, 2015
During these years, inflation-adjusted median wages grew an average of 1.5 percent annually compared with no gain from 1979 to 1995, says the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “The late 1990s,” it argues, “was the only period between 1979 and 2013 when wage growth was robust and broadly shared.”
The Washington Post
April 6, 2015
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, said that while there are legitimate uses for the H-1B, the visas are mainly used to drive down labor costs and boost profits. “It’s about replacing US workers who are already doing the job with someone who’ll do it more cheaply,” said Eisenbrey. “Their only purpose is cutting wages. it’s not about bringing new skills.” Eisenbrey called for legislation that would make it illegal to lay off US citizens and replace them with H-1B workers. He also proposed requiring H-1B workers be paid more than the local prevailing wage for the work they do. Eisenbrey said that if the foreign workers possess skills that are impossible to find in the US labor market, companies should be happy to pay the extra money.
The Boston Globe
April 6, 2015
But Elise Gould, a senior economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, said in a statement that the new report “should give us pause. … While it’s important not to put too much stock in a couple months of data — especially given the unusual amount of snow that blanketed the country in the past two months — policymakers should be wary of any signs of any slowdown from the solid job growth over the previous year.”
“There is still ample slack in the labor market,” Gould wrote. “Private sector hourly wages are up only 2.1 percent over the year. Wages need to grow faster, and for a longer time, before we can say the economy is truly working for working people.”
Politico
April 6, 2015
The weak March report is a reminder that although the economy is improving, it’s still struggling to climb back from the Great Recession. “While it’s important not to put too much stock in a couple months of data . . . policymakers should be wary of any signs of any slowdown from the solid job growth over the previous year,” Elise Gould, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute, wrote in an analysis. “Other indicators make it clear that there is still ample slack in the labor market.”
McClatchy
April 6, 2015
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute pointed out that the public sector workforce has not recovered since the recession. “The economy is short 1.3 million public sector jobs,” EPI senior economist Elise Gould wrote in a blog post Friday.
NBC News
April 6, 2015
When people cheat to escape a corrupt accountability system, who is to blame? This was written by scholar Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers. This appeared on the EPI website and I am republishing it with permission.
The Washington Post
April 6, 2015
Over the last year, employers added an average of 266,000 workers to their payrolls each month, pushing the unemployment rate to a level not seen since 2008. The falling overall rate, however, obscures persistent difficulties facing particular groups of workers. “The unemployment rate for black communities is at a crisis level, even as the economy gets closer and closer to a full recovery,” said Valerie Wilson, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The New York Times
April 3, 2015
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington-based liberal think tank, nominal wage rises of 3.5-4 percent per year will be needed before workers begin to recover losses from the last severe recession.
Elise Gould, an economist at the EPI, said state-government mandated minimum wage hikes, rather than a scarcity of workers in retail, leisure and hospitality probably contributed to the improved fortunes of the bottom 10 percent. “I would be surprised if those were the sectors where we saw the tightness first,” she said.
Reuters
April 3, 2015
Perhaps because of the effect on prices, the mortgage-interest deduction doesn’t even seem to encourage homeownership. Thomas L. Hungerford, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute, notes that Canada and the United Kingdom have homeownership rates similar to that of the U.S., even though they don’t let borrowers write off the interest on their mortgages. “Having the mortgage-interest deduction does almost nothing for increasing homeownership rates,” Hungerford said.
FiveThirtyEight
April 3, 2015
This report was produced by the Economic Policy Institute as part of the Full Employment Project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The American Prospect
April 3, 2015
International Franchise Association CEO Steve Caldera and Economic Policy Institute Senior Economist Elise Gould weigh in on the income inequality and minimum wage debate. They speak on “In The Loop.”
Bloomberg TV
April 2, 2015
The raise, however, only applies to employees of the actual restaurant. The 750,000 workers employed by franchises, which make up 90 percent of McDonald’s restaurants, are not included in this wage hike. “The fact that a $1.00 raise for 90,000 workers is headline news is evidence of how low the bar has been set,” the Economic Policy Institute noted in a statement. “All workers should receive regular wage increases as productivity rises, and yet despite rising productivity, Americans’ wages have been stagnant for three-and-a-half decades.”
Mother Jones
April 2, 2015
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, said the fact a $1 raise for 90,000 workers is headline news is evidence of how low the bar has been set. “All workers should receive regular wage increases as productivity rises, and yet despite rising productivity, Americans’ wages have been stagnant for three-and-a-half decades.”
The Hill
April 2, 2015
The Washington Post
April 1, 2015
Webb graduated from the Naval Academy in 1968. Research from the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute shows that the chief executive-to-worker compensation ratio in 1965 was 20-to-1.
The Washington Post
April 1, 2015
The skill and education of immigrants with H-1Bs do not insulate them from criticism. Ross Eisenbrey, a lawyer at the left-wing Economic Policy Institute, complained that such skilled immigrants supposedly hurt Americans. He claimed that skilled migrants cause a “genius glut” that pushes down the job opportunities for Americans. Eisenbrey does get one thing right in his polemic against skilled immigrants: There is no shortage of skilled workers. But that doesn’t mean America can’t use them.
The Hill
April 1, 2015