US employers spend an estimated $340m annually on hiring union avoidance consultants to oppose unionization efforts and employers are charged with violating federal labor law in 41.5% of all union elections, according to a 2019 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Guardian
February 3, 2023
A majority of farmworkers, or 68%, reported that they’re employed by farm labor contractors rather than by growers or farmers directly. Nationwide, farm labor contractors were found to be the biggest violators of federal wage and hour laws, according to a separate 2020 study conducted by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Sacramento Bee
February 3, 2023
These restrictions have caused alarm among economists and worker advocates. The Economic Policy Institute has found that noncompete clauses have fueled rising inequality by reducing “labor market fluidity” — that is, the ability for workers to change jobs. One of the primary ways a nonunion worker can bargain for a better wage is to threaten to leave for a better paid position elsewhere, a dynamic that is eliminated by noncompete clauses.
The Intercept
February 3, 2023
Using minimum wage data from the Economic Policy Institute, Zillow analyzed how many full-time minimum-wage jobs would be required to afford the typical rent in the 50 largest U.S. cities and in the U.S. overall.
WRAL.com
February 3, 2023
A report last year from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that, in 2021, teachers made on average 23.5 percent less weekly than other college graduates, or about 76 cents on the dollar — a record high disparity for teacher salaries. This difference exists regardless of the common argument against raising teacher pay that teachers get summers off, EPI found, as the number of hours a teacher works weekly is comparable to that of other workers.
Truthout
February 3, 2023
Many minority groups are more likely to have no retirement savings at all, according to the Economic Policy Institute (paywall).
MarketWatch
February 3, 2023
Local 1 staffer Adam Stant (who was not subject to layoff) says that these layoffs come at a moment when the labor movement should be hiring, not firing, organizers. An Economic Policy Institute report presents evidence that suggests 60 million workers would join a union if they could. Some labor observers argue that the bottleneck preventing these workers from having a union is unions themselves.
In These Times
February 3, 2023
According to a 2022 report by Economic Policy Institute researchers Valerie Wilson and William Darity Jr., net productivity per work hour rose 69.6% between 1979 and 2019 while median wages for Blacks grew 5.2% compared to 20% for whites.
Charlotte Post
February 3, 2023
The Center for Economic and Policy Research notes that the wage gap between white and Black workers is narrower among postal workers than among private sector employees. The Economic Policy Institute has found that Black workers’ share of USPS jobs is significantly higher than their share of all public sector jobs.
Inequality.org
February 3, 2023
Links to Daniel’s blog post on California legislation on labor recruiters.
LA Times
February 3, 2023