An Economic Policy Institute study on “right-to-work” in 2021 in Montana found that the median hourly wage of union workers in Montana is $22.85, compared with $16.95 for nonunion workers, and nationally union workers make 11% more.
Daily Montanan
February 24, 2023
In reality, Black and Hispanic Floridians have significantly higher unemployment rates, at 4.2% and 3.1% respectively, according to the Economic Policy Institute. This disparity speaks volumes about how the effort and impact of employment programs aimed to support employment recovery are falling short.
Miami Herald
February 17, 2023
Bernstein has previously served as Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class and as an economic advisor to President Obama; prior to his service in the Obama-Biden Administration, he was a senior economist and director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute.
The White House
February 17, 2023
New York also allocated funds to help undocumented workers in April 2021, and it was notable for its size — the state committed over $2 billion of its budget for an estimated 290,000 undocumented workers — and the level of compensation, which “approaches what others got in unemployment insurance,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Business Insider
February 17, 2023
In 2017, the U.S. aluminum industry was, in the words of a report by the Economic Policy Institute, “hanging by a thread.”
The Hill
February 17, 2023
A scenario in which congressional Republicans use the debt ceiling to enforce austerity sounds queasily familiar. The Fed cannot get involved in partisan political fights, but it certainly can — and must — be realistic about likely economic scenarios. In a more rational Washington, the Fed might able to justify leaning toward interest rate increases as it has in recent months. But in this Washington, the risk of accelerating a recession is too great. The Fed must act accordingly.
MSNBC.com
February 17, 2023
“A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute finds that 92 percent of Dollar General employees make less than $15 an hour. Twenty-two percent make less than $10 an hour,” wrote Alex Press for Jacobin in May 2022.
The Daily Dot
February 17, 2023
A study issued last year by the Economic Policy Institute claimed that 1.4 million New York City workers would see their incomes boosted next year by the Ramos plan, with 500,000 gaining in the suburbs and about 1 million statewide. The EPI numbers include those who are directly affected by the law and those who will see wages increased as employers boost pay for those somewhat above the new minimum.
The City
February 17, 2023
Bernstein also has a reputation for accommodative, progressive economic policy. In his past work at the Economic Policy Institute and in the Clinton and Obama administrations, has has focused on labor markets, income inequality and concerns about the U.S. middle class.
Investopedia
February 17, 2023
According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, more than $3 billion in stolen wages were recovered for U.S. workers between 2017 and 2020—a fraction of the $50 billion EPI says is stolen by employers each year. By contrast, the FBI said the total value of all 267,988 reported U.S. robberies in 2019 was around $482 million.
Common Dreams
February 17, 2023
Bernstein, who played in jazz bands and worked as a social worker in New York City before getting a doctorate, has long supported progressive economic policy. He served in former President Bill Clinton’s Labor Department and then as Biden’s chief economist when Biden was vice president.
At the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington think tank, he wrote and testified to Congress on the shrinking U.S. middle class, a bedrock Biden theme.
Reuters
February 17, 2023
In reviewing the numbers, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that, adjusting for inflation, CEO pay increased by 1,322.2% between 1978 and 2020. That translates to growth roughly 60% faster than stock market investments. Even during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions lost their jobs, CEO compensation jumped by just shy of 19%.
Motley Fool
February 17, 2023
From the end of World War II until the late 1970s, according to the Economic Policy Institute, increased productivity and increased pay for workers ran
roughly parallel. Since then, the measures have parted ways. Between 1979 and 2020, worker net productivity increased by 61.8 percent, while worker hourly pay increased by just 17.5 percent. What happened? “Starting in the late 1970s, policymakers began dismantling all the policy bulwarks helping to ensure that typical workers’ wages grew with productivity,” explain the analysts at the EPI. “Excess unemployment was tolerated to keep any chance of inflation in check. Raises in the federal minimum wage became smaller and rarer. Labor law failed to keep pace with growing employer hostility toward unions. Tax rates on top incomes were lowered. And anti-worker deregulatory pushes—from the deregulation of the trucking and airline industries to the retreat of anti-trust policy to the dismantling of financial regulations and more—succeeded again and again.” Instead of increased productivity translating into increased pay and shorter workweeks, Wall Street investors made off with the cash in one of the biggest heists in the history of the American economy.
The Nation
February 17, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual cost of infant care in Texas in 2022 is about $9,324, or $777 per month. The average cost for a four-year-old is $7,062, or $589 a month.
Jacksonville Progress
February 17, 2023
It’s a practice that employers have repeated during subsequent economic downturns, Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
Business Insider
February 17, 2023
Teachers here in Nevada and across the nation consistently cite a lack of administrative support as a major driver of burnout. According to the Economic Policy Institute, more than half of teachers nationwide do not agree that school administrators are strongly supportive or encouraging. And more than two-thirds of teachers surveyed do not strongly agree that staff members are recognized for a job well done.
The Nevada Independent
February 17, 2023
Other studies have suggested potential improvements to high school graduation rates and college enrollment rates among students enrolled at voucher schools. At first glance, many would likely see this as beneficial. However, closer review by the Economic Policy Institute explains that overall high school graduation rates have steadily increased over the past decade, and they have done so at rates higher than those estimated among students participating in voucher programs.
The Post and Courier
February 17, 2023
In the Working Economics Blog, Josh Bivens, of the Economic Policy Institute writes, “The debt limit needs to be abolished — either formally or effectively.” The overwhelming majority of rich nations don’t have a statutory debt limit. Bivens argues, “The debt limit measures nothing coherent and has no relationship to any serious measure of the economic burden imposed by the nation’s debt. It has as much relevance to the nation’s objective economic health as today’s horoscope.
Boulder Weekly
February 17, 2023
“Hitting the debt ceiling is terrible, and making a deal that hamstrings our economy is also terrible,” said Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.
Wall Street Journal
February 17, 2023
But nothing says “esteem” more directly than paychecks, and, by that metric, American society has for years been systematically devaluing the work teachers do. Between 1996 and 2021, the Economic Policy Institute’s Sylvia Allegretto detailed last August, average teacher weekly wages adjusted for inflation rose a miniscule $29. Over the same years, inflation-adjusted weekly wages for other college graduates rose over 15 times faster, up $445.
Inequality.org
February 17, 2023
It’s against the law for companies to retaliate against workers who are trying to organize unions—but that often doesn’t stop them from doing so. According to recent research from the Economic Policy Institute, employers were charged with illegally firing workers in 24% of all union elections. That research uses the “most comprehensive measure of firings,” according to EPI, and comes from data from the NLRB between 2019 and 2022, as well as unfair labor practice filings from 2018 through 2022.
Fast Company
February 17, 2023
Advocates and experts also point to expanded access to no or low-cost early childhood education as a solution that not only benefits children but parents and the economy as a whole. Colorado ranks eighth in the country for most expensive child care, with an average annual cost of $15,325, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Rocky Mountain PBS
February 17, 2023
According to a 2022 study from the Economic Policy Institute – a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that addresses low- and middle-income workers’ needs – the teacher “wage penalty” – that is, how much less teachers make than comparable workers – grew from 6.1% in 1996 to 23.5% in 2021. Put another way, the average weekly wages of public school teachers – adjusted for inflation – increased just US$29 from 1996 to 2021, from $1,319 to $1,348 in 2021 dollars. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted weekly wages of other college graduates rose $445, from $1,564 to $2,009, over the same period.
The Conversation
February 17, 2023
“The picture right now is actually still pretty rosy, so you’re not seeing that kind of slowdown in a lot of the topline jobs numbers,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Marketplace
February 17, 2023
Employers regularly employ illegal tactics to suppress unions. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) of the latest government data on Unfair Labor Practice charges and union elections shows that employers were charged with violating federal Labor law in nearly 40 percent of elections – everything from firing to retaliation to changing work terms.
Labor Tribune
February 17, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, wage theft costs U.S. workers as much as $50 billion per year — a number far higher than all robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts combined. While we’re taught to be vigilant and lock our homes and cars to prevent robberies, most workers are not trained on how to identify wage theft and claw back stolen wages. Wage theft is also more likely to affect low-wage workers, immigrant workers, and workers with less education and fewer resources.
In These Times
February 17, 2023
While the federal minimum wage has remained stagnant at $7.25 per hour since 2009, many states have continually raised theirs. “States began instituting their own, higher minimum wages during periods of federal inaction,” says Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “So the longer the gap between federal minimum wage increases, the more likely some states went ahead and raised their own state-level minimum.”
CNBC
February 17, 2023
He worked 16 years at the liberal, pro-labor Economic Policy Institute before Mr. Biden hired him to be the chief economist for the vice president when Mr. Biden and President Barack Obama took office in 2009. In announcing his departure, E.P.I. officials called Mr. Bernstein “a tireless advocate for middle- and low-income families and for greater equity in the U.S. economy.”
New York Times
February 17, 2023
First, they face employers that are highly mobilized and unified in their commitment to sacrificing the rights of ordinary people to make higher profits. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently broke down how much money is being spent today on whittling away the wages and benefits of their employees—either by preventing them from unionizing or by seeking to break the unions their employees have already voted for. According to journalist Tyler Walicek, even with the EPI’s caveats about what spending they couldn’t fully account for, it concluded that “total spending on the union-busting industry amounts to at least $340 million a year.”
CNN
February 17, 2023