Media clips

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• Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft want more H-1B visa holders, push US govt to increase intake

  Additionally, the report filed by Lee Fang claims cites The Economic Policy Institute has documented widespread abuse of the program, including underpayment of foreign workers and companies hiring H-1B workers instead of qualified candidates from within the country.

  Business Today June 16, 2023
• Opinion: Ohio economy is at risk without more affordable housing

  Between 2019 and 2022, hourly wages increased 9% for workers in the bottom 10th percentile, the largest percentage increase of any income group, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But that only equates to an extra $1.04 per hour, far less than the 25% increase in U.S. median rents between January 2021 and June 2022.

  Crain's Cleveland Business June 16, 2023
• Discrimination Isn’t Just Infuriating. It Steals Black People’s Time.

  An Economic Policy Institute analysis found that in 2022, the average white employee made $34.49 an hour, while the average Black employee made $25.61 — a difference of $8.88, or nearly 30%. This can mean the difference between having food on the table, emergency savings money, a 401(k), and student loan debt paid, or not.

  …

  Plus, Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity, and the economy, points out, it’s a huge burden for an individual to prove discrimination. “The system currently is set up in a way that you have to have the experience of discrimination before anything happens,” she said, “as opposed to us putting more resources and energy into preventing it or limiting opportunities for it to happen in the first place.”

  Capital B June 16, 2023
• Teamsters union says ‘no’ to Kroger, Albertsons merger

  Fueling the merger resistance was a policy memo by the Economic Policy Institute that claimed grocery store workers could lose $330 million annually in pay if the deal goes through.

  Supermarket News June 16, 2023
• What We Heard at the Budget Hearing for Atlanta’s New Department of Labor

  Georgia’s Black unemployment rate sank to a low of 5.4% during the last quarter of fiscal year 2022, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.

  Capital B Atlanta June 16, 2023
• Social Security’s back in the GOP’s crosshairs: Here’s an alternative to cuts

  Congress should also raise the wage cap on Social Security payroll taxes. Currently, those CEOs pay no payroll taxes into the system on anything they make above $160,200. The Economic Policy Institute estimates this cap has cost the Social Security trust fund $1.4 trillion.

  The Hill June 16, 2023
• USDA grant funding available for farm workers

  According to the Economic Policy Institute:

  • More than two million farm workers were deemed “essential” during the pandemic in order to sustain food supply chains, but they earned an average of $14.62 an hour.
  • The wage paid to most farm workers with H-2A visas was even lower at a national average of $13.68 per hour and the lowest in Georgia and Florida at $11.71.
  ABC Action News June 16, 2023
• Retirees’ biggest fear is outliving their assets, research finds. These tips can help

  Financial concerns have pushed some workers — 46% — to retire later than expected to meet income or savings needs to pay for basic expenses, according to Cerulli’s research.

  Yet many older workers ages 50 through 70 face difficult working conditions, recent research from the Economic Policy Institute found.

  CNBC June 16, 2023
• Healthy market awaits graduates

  Despite the drumbeat of layoff announcements in industries like high-tech and financial services, the job market for young graduates is healthy. According to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute the unemployment rate for workers ages 16 to 24 is 7.5% — the lowest in 70 years — as of March 2023.

  Minneapolis Star Tribune June 16, 2023
• Remembering trailblazing economist William Spriggs

  ASCOE: I wanted to ask you, what made William Spriggs – known as Bill to his friends – so remarkable as an economist and as a person?

  WILSON: I think as an economist, what made him so remarkable was his ability to really translate economic concepts into human issues and really doing economics with a purpose and a reason of improving lives. And I think that then, you know, sort of speaks volumes to who he was as a person and just his passion and commitment to making life better for the average worker and making life better for Black Americans specifically.

  NPR Weekend Edition June 16, 2023