The inflation of the past three years is especially galling for autoworkers, who agreed to give up automatic cost-of-living increases in 2008 when two of the Big Three filed for bankruptcy and had to be bailed out by the federal government. Since then, workers’ inflation-adjusted income has fallen 19%, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Fortune
September 22, 2023
Profits at the Big Three firms increased by 92 percent in the last decade and CEO pay increased by 40 percent in the same period, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.
The Hill
September 22, 2023
A 2021 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor think tank, estimated that without policy intervention, meeting that goal would cost the US auto industry 75,000 jobs, since the majority of EV powertrain components are produced and assembled elsewhere.
WIRED
September 22, 2023
Samantha Sanders, the director of government affairs and advocacy at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based thinktank, suggested Republican interventions on the strike were driven by opportunism.
“I don’t know what is the decision-making on their campaigns,” she said. “All I can say is, what is your track record? What have you done for workers? Have we reason to believe they would follow on these messages of support some of them express? I have not seen anything backed up by action while they were in office.
The Guardian
September 22, 2023
The union argues that the boost in pay and benefits is warranted because of the hefty profits and executive compensation at the auto companies. From 2013 to 2022, according to the Economic Policy Institute, profits at the Big Three leapt 92%, totalling $250 billion by last year.
U.S. News & World Report
September 22, 2023
CEO pay has skyrocketed more than 1,200% since 1978, compared to a 15.3% increase in a typical worker’s compensation, according to a new report out today from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Josh Bivens, chief economist for the EPI, and Luke Schaefer, associate dean for research and policy engagement at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Policy, joined Nick Austin on Detroit Today this morning to discuss how income inequality affects our economy and society as a whole.
NPR Detroit
September 22, 2023
Profits at the Big Three have almost doubled in the last 10 years, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Persistent high profits like this are evidence that markets are not functioning well, so we aren’t producing as much as possible with the resources we have available.
CNN
September 22, 2023
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that average CEO compensation (including stock awards and options) was $25.2 million in 2022, a slight decrease from 2021, due largely to stock market declines. Since 1978, however, CEO compensation has soared by 1,209.2% compared with a 15.3% increase in a typical worker’s compensation. In 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker. Back in 1965, they were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker.
Counterpunch
September 22, 2023
Over the last two years, at least 14 states introduced or passed laws eroding child labor standards, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank.
“They do that in a variety of ways, either by extending hours, by expanding the industries in which young workers can work at, or allowing them to serve alcohol,” said Nina Mast, coauthor of the report.
AFP
September 22, 2023
Meanwhile the automakers rebounded from the financial crisis and began to make a lot of money — $250 billion from 2013 through 2022, according to the Economic Policy Institute. G.M. and Chrysler were prohibited from issuing big dividends or stock buybacks to reward shareholders as a condition of the federal bailouts they received, but soon after the government sold the last of its shares (in 2011 for Chrysler and 2013 for G.M.), they resumed big payouts in earnest. They also boosted top executives’ pay.
New York Times
September 22, 2023