In March, the unemployment rate for people aged 16 to 24, who are already benefiting from pre-pandemic labor market conditions, marked a 70-year low at 7.5%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In April, it dipped further for that age group, to 6.5%.
June 9, 2023
In the past two years, according to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, at least fourteen states have enacted or proposed laws rolling back child-labor protections. Typically, the new laws extend work hours for minors, lift restrictions on hazardous work, lower the age at which kids can bus tables where alcohol is served, or introduce new sub-minimum wages. In Iowa, a new law allows children as young as fourteen to work in industrial laundries, and, with approval from a state agency, allows sixteen-year-olds to work in roofing, excavation, demolition, the operation of power-driven machinery, and other dangerous occupations. Jennifer Sherer, a co-author of the E.P.I. report, said, “Iowa’s new law contains multiple provisions that conflict with federal prohibitions on ‘oppressive child labor.’ ” It also limits employer liability for the injury, illness, or death of a child on the job. Adolescents are almost twice as likely as adults to be injured at work.
The New Yorker
June 9, 2023
Congress last raised the federal minimum wage in 2009 to $7.25 per hour. Since then the U.S. dollar has lost nearly 30 percent of purchasing power, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Tennessean
June 9, 2023
Income weighs heavily for those who identify as working class, but jobs and family history matter, too.
That focus is no surprise, Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told the Deseret News. “The vast majority of Americans under 65 get their income from work. So how the labor market is doing, how their wages are and how they’re able to make ends meet is easily the most important issue.”
Deseret News
June 9, 2023
And according to a 2019 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, some work creates more economic ripples, including jobs in information, utilities and certain manufacturing sectors. One hundred jobs in durable manufacturing, for example, indirectly support 744.1 others. While 100 retail jobs indirectly add 122.1.
The Colorado Sun
June 9, 2023
The bottom 10% of earners saw their inflation-adjusted wages rise 9% between 2019 and 2022, a bigger gain by percentage than any other income bracket, according to a March report by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. High demand for traditionally low-paid jobs such as restaurant workers amid the recovery from the pandemic has helped drive pay up.
Investopedia
June 9, 2023
A 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that in the 10 most populous states wage theft among minimum wage workers totaled $8 billion a year. Extrapolating out across the rest of the country and accounting for other forms of wage theft, the researchers estimate more than $50 billion is stolen from workers annually.
Fast Company
June 9, 2023
Job growth was particularly strong in education and health services (+97,000), professional and business services (+64,000), government (+56,000) and leisure and hospitality (+44,000). Economist Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute wrote that “gains in both leisure and hospitality and government employment are particularly welcome news as they remain the sectors with the largest job shortfalls since before the pandemic,” adding that “those deficits are steadily shrinking month after month.”
The Fiscal Times
June 9, 2023
Several factors contribute to the higher jobless rates among black Americans compared to whites. Racism and single-adult households, where one person must balance childcare and full-time employment, are among the primary reasons, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
24/7 Wall St.
June 9, 2023