The push to strengthen the enforcement of labor laws comes on the heels of a push by lawmakers in some states to loosen child labor regulations amid high demand for workers. In the past two years, at least 10 states have introduced or passed laws that ease workplace protections for minors, according to a March report published by the Economic Policy Institute. Mississippi was not among those states.
Associated Press
September 1, 2023
The new rule would raise the proportion of salaried workers guaranteed overtime pay from 15 percent, as estimated by the Economic Policy Institute, to 27 percent, according to labor officials.
Truthout
September 1, 2023
Some experts speculate that the transition to EV could cause massive job losses. The Economic Policy Institute put out a report in September 2021 estimating that it could cost roughly 75,000 U.S. auto industry jobs by 2030, but could also create 150,000 if subsidies were provided to spur domestic production.
In These Times
September 1, 2023
Roughly 15% of salaried workers are now entitled to overtime pay, the AP reports citing data from the Economic Policy Institute. If the new rule passes, nearly 30% of salaried workers would become eligible for overtime, though that’s far lower than the 60% of salaried workers who were entitled to overtime pay in the 1970s, per the EPI. Since then, the threshold has not kept pace with wage growth, experts say.
CNBC
September 1, 2023
Guests Today: Quincy Krosby of LPL Financial, Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute, Michael Lewis of Truist Securities, Steven Meier, New York City Retirement System CIO, Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth, Kevin Kelly, Kelly ETFS CEO, Nancy Tengler of Laffer Tengler Investments, Alan Binder of Princeton University, Stacy Rasgon of Bernstein Research and Nick Bunker of Indeed.
Bloomberg TV
September 1, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute claims employers routinely underpay farm workers, but federal investigations into this problem have dropped to an all-time low thanks to funding and staffing constraints.
Since 2000, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, with only 810 investigators to protect 165 million workers, has seen investigations drop by more than 60%.
Agribusiness
September 1, 2023
Economic Policy Institute president Heidi Shierholz—a former DOL chief economist—similarly praised the proposal, saying that “EPI is encouraged to see this important regulation move forward. The overtime threshold has not been properly updated for nearly 50 years, robbing millions of workers of their basic wage and hour rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
Common Dreams
September 1, 2023
As the Economic Policy Institute has explained, the FLSA mandates that the DOL set the salary level below which workers qualify for overtime pay –– a hugely important metric, because a too-low threshold that does not account for inflation contributes to wage stagnation for workers
On Labor
September 1, 2023
“This proposal would ensure that employers have ‘skin in the game’ when they ask these workers to work long hours,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank.
The Connecticut Mirror
September 1, 2023