The Labor Department concluded or resolved a record-low number of wage and hour investigations on farms in fiscal 2022, continuing a yearslong decline, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute.
Staffing and funding are likely to blame, the left-leaning institute said, along with factors related to the expansion of the H-2A temporary farmworker program.
The Biden administration has found fewer back wages owed to farmworkers than the Trump administration, EPI said; however, it has levied more civil money penalties.
“Efforts to protect farmworkers have slid backward, with the number of investigations falling even further behind the already record-low levels during the Trump administration, likely due to the Wage and Hour Division being too underfunded and understaffed for the size of the task at hand,” Daniel Costa, one of the report authors, said in a press release.
Politico Pro
August 25, 2023
“It is really crucial to keep up the drumbeat,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute. “This is what the economy needs,” [paywall].
Bloomberg Law
August 25, 2023
The claim that teachers are underpaid largely focuses on what teachers unions and progressive advocates call the “teacher pay penalty.” In the formulation of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-wing think tank, “public school teachers earn about 20 percent less in weekly wages than nonteacher college graduates.” That may be true. But is it relevant? Would anyone argue that all occupations requiring a college degree should pay equivalent salaries?
Boston Globe
August 25, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute report, “Chasing the dream of equity,” released this month to commemorate the anniversary of the 1963 march, finds that little progress has been made in removing barriers to the full equitable integration of Black Americans into the U.S. economy. Among its key findings: The racial wealth gap — a typical white family has eight times the wealth of the typical Black family — is a long-standing vestige of centuries of government policies that explicitly denied African Americans the opportunity to build wealth.
Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002.
The Chicago Sun Times
August 25, 2023
This means women in the state would have to work until they were 72 to match what a man made by the time he turned 60.
The gap “can be tremendous,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “It means that women on average have less economic security, less retirement security, and don’t have the same opportunities for meeting a decent standard of living.”
Mountain State Spotlight
August 25, 2023
Trans youth on the sidelines this school year, Justice Thomas received more gifts than initially reported, Chick-fil-A worker sent home for hair color, Jasmine Payne-Patterson explains The CROWN Act & working to end hair-based discrimination.
Advocate Today
August 25, 2023
Economic Policy Institute: “The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law a year ago this week. It is widely seen as the crown jewel of the “industrial policy” agenda of the Biden administration. While no piece of legislation is perfect, the full potential of the IRA to deliver a radically better future is often underrated. In this post, we highlight many of the IRA’s huge steps forward and also talk about the unfinished agenda for securing faster, fairer, and greener growth in the U.S. economy.” [Blogpost, 8/14/23]
Economic Policy Institute: “Put simply, the IRA puts the U.S. on a path where meeting its global climate change commitments is within reach—commitments which would provide a genuine chance at securing a livable planet for future generations if they are kept. At the beginning of August 2022, there was no such path to secure this livable future, but there is now—and that is a mammoth victory.” [Blogpost, 8/14/23]
The White House
August 25, 2023
An inability to retain qualified and experienced professionals can have serious implications for the wider staffing of schools. A 2022 Economic Policy Institute report indicated that 23% of all U.S. public schools had at least 5% of their positions vacant during the 2021-22 school year. More than half of schools reported that those vacancies were due to resignations and 21% stated they were due to retirements.
Lancaster Online
August 25, 2023
For those seeking to delve deeper into the statistics and context surrounding the Black unemployment rate in the United States, additional information can be found through reputable sources such as the BLS or the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Black Wall Street Times
August 25, 2023
“Top companies now regularly disfavor qualified applicants who happen to be white or Asian,” he tweeted in June. “Time to restore colorblind meritocracy once and for all.”
Ramaswamy did not provide any evidence for his claim and did not respond to a question on the topic from the Guardian. Last year, a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that “one of the most durable and defining features of the US labor market is the 2-to-1 disparity in unemployment that exists between black and white workers”.
The Guardian
August 25, 2023