Except, as one remarkable survey released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) demonstrates, the number of workers in starvation-wage jobs still numbers in the many millions.
The American Prospect
April 22, 2022
During the pandemic, wages have trailed price increases, but some economists don’t expect that will necessarily lead to widespread raises, like in the 1970s. They point out workers don’t have the same kind of leverage they had in the 1970s. After 1989, labor costs stopped rising in tandem with prices, notes Josh Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute.
Quartz
April 22, 2022
On Tuesday, the Economic Policy Institute and Harvard’s Shift Project released a collaborative effort dubbed the Company Wage Tracker. It looks at 66 large retail and food corporations to show not only the hourly wages of workers within the United States, but also how much revenue they generate in the U.S. and what each corporation pays its CEOs.
Mic
April 22, 2022
Thousands of workers in food service, hospitality and retail are still making below $15 an hour, including the majority of workers at big-box stores and discount retailers. That low wage stands in contrast to employer who rake in vast amounts of profit, according to a new survey from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
CBS
April 22, 2022
According to Dave Kamper, senior state policy coordinator for the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) at the Economic Policy Institute, it’s not uncommon for companies to “look for ways to break workers’ solidarity by bringing in new employees. Sometimes the hope is that the new workers will be too grateful for their jobs to support the union,” Kamper said. “Sometimes the hope is simply that an influx of new people disrupts existing workplace patterns.”
Teen Vogue
April 22, 2022
How do you quantify dignified, essential work? For food retail and hospitality workers in the age of Covid-19 and rising food prices, this descriptor does not translate into better wages. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute and The Shift Project of Harvard University details the low wages at dozens of firms throughout the industry and skewers the notion that profit-driven price inflation is due to workers’ wage demands.
Forbes
April 22, 2022
In 2021, median CEO compensation reached $20 million, a 31% increase from the year prior, due to big jumps in stock awards and cash bonuses based on market performance and company productivity. CEO pay consists of wages, as well as extremely lucrative bonuses, long-term incentives and, most importantly, stock options, which comprise around 85% of CEO compensation, according to Lawrence Mishel, a distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
April 22, 2022
The ongoing survey was conducted by The Shift Project, an endeavor by sociologists at Harvard and the University of California, San Francisco and released with the progressive think tank, Economic Policy Institute.
Axios
April 22, 2022
“Child care workers, the people providing this labor and this service that is absolutely vital to the continuing of our economy and families, are so underpaid that they can’t afford to cover their basic needs,” said Asha Banerjee, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank.
VOX
April 22, 2022