Features interview with Nina Mast on child labor.
Free Speech TV
February 23, 2024
At least seven other states have introduced similar bills in the past two years, according to Daniel Perez, an analyst who’s been tracking the issue for the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which supports the policy. These include California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Maryland bill was unveiled just last month.
“It seems like a groundswell moment,” Perez said.
Huffpost
February 23, 2024
Features interview with Nina Mast on child labor.
Free Speech TV
February 23, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the number of bus drivers in the country is down 15% from 2019.
KWQC
February 23, 2024
Support has grown across the United States recently for legislation banning race-based discrimination on hair, specifically textures or styles associated with a particular race or national origin. Texas is one of 24 states to have passed a law banning such discrimination, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Texas passed its law in May 2023.
Reuters
February 23, 2024
Access also varies depending on where in the country you live. Due to state laws, nearly 94% of workers in California, Oregon and Washington have paid sick leave according to the Economic Policy Institute, compared with less than two-thirds of workers in the South.
Bloomberg
February 23, 2024
The name is an acronym for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair and it prohibits discrimination against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race. There were 24 states with such laws as of July 2023, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
NBC Washington
February 23, 2024
Fortune
February 23, 2024
It all made for compelling headlines. And those headlines masked a frustrating truth for organizers: Good news notwithstanding, the unionization rate in the U.S. fell once again in 2023.
That’s according to a report released last month by the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, which closely tracks union activity and analyzes data provided by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the report’s authors noted, the surge in labor activity last year didn’t produce greater union representation — at least, not yet.
Capital & Main
February 23, 2024
As of July 2023, more than 20 states have enacted legislation to combat race-based discrimination against hair texture and protective hairstyles, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CNN
February 23, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute analyzed childcare costs by county and found that the average cost of childcare across the state of Georgia, the data was compiled from the statistics published by the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Database of Childcare Prices.
WSB-TV
February 23, 2024
But some people aren’t impressed by employers’ efforts. “It’s just a gimmick,” says Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C. “I think most people just need a raise.”
Gould says that many low-income employees don’t need advice on budgeting because they’ve learned to do it out of necessity. “I’m impressed they can put food on the table,” she says. “They probably know how to budget better than people who make more money.”
And while earnings have begun to outpace inflation, Gould says that low-wage workers are still behind due to years of being underpaid.
SHRM
February 23, 2024
A new US Department of Labor rule restores protections for misclassified workers and could help reduce the precarious status of freelance journalists, according to Samantha Sanders of the Economic Policy Institute. These protections are sorely needed in an industry buffeted by layoffs. Now, freelance workers are organizing to make sure that needed reforms like the new DOL rule stick.
Nonprofit Quarterly
February 23, 2024
Based on analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a total of 9 million workers will receive $6.95 billion from the new wage policy, significantly boosting the quality of life for workers.
Register Forum
February 23, 2024
“Despite the continued popularity of unions among workers and the public, we have yet to see this momentum translate into substantial increases in the number of workers represented by a union,” read a recent Economic Policy Institute report on the latest BLS union rates. “What is causing this disconnect? Simply put, decades of policy decisions have made it harder for workers to form unions and bargain collectively.”
Truthout
February 23, 2024
In their analysis of the data, also published Wednesday, Margaret Poydock and Jennifer Sherer of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) pointed out that “this is an increase of over 280% from the number of workers involved in major worker stoppages in 2022, which was 120,600. Further, it is on par with the increase seen in pre-pandemic levels during 2018 and 2019.”
Poydock, a senior policy analyst at the think tank, said in a statement that “a surge of workers went on strike in 2023 to fight back against record corporate profits, stratospheric CEO pay, and decades of stagnant wages. From the United Auto Workers to nurses across the country, these strikes provided critical leverage to workers to secure better wages and working conditions.”
Common Dreams
February 23, 2024
According to the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute, at least 30 states have introduced or passed bills to weaken child labor protections since 2021 — and in nine of those states, legislation has been introduced to expand youth employment in hazardous occupations or workplaces.
In this year alone, 11 states have introduced or taken new action on bills to roll back child labor protections in 2024, according to EPI.
ABC News
February 23, 2024
Games also make learning more accessible. According to the Economic Policy Institute, almost two-thirds of the workforce does not have a college degree, and “the last thing an hourly worker wants is to be put in a classroom and feel they’re being taught at,” said Caucci.
C-Store Dive
February 23, 2024
Modern Healthcare
February 23, 2024
Earlier this month the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute argued that the recent proposals targeting state child labor protections are part of “an intentional tactic to generate pressure for subsequently lowering federal standards, reflecting long-standing interests of some industry groups.”
Mountain State Spotlight
February 23, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute: “Misleadingly named right-to-work (RTW) laws do not, as some unfamiliar with the term may assume, entail any guarantee of employment for people ready and willing to go to work. Rather, by making it harder for workers’ organizations to sustain themselves financially, state RTW laws aim to undermine unions’ bargaining strength. Because RTW laws lower wages and benefits, weaken workplace protections, and decrease the likelihood that employers will be required to negotiate with their employees, they are advanced as a strategy for attracting new businesses to a state. But EPI research shows that RTW laws do not have any positive impact on job growth.”
Indeed, the institute noted several years ago, “RTW laws are associated with lower wages and benefits for both union and nonunion workers. In a RTW state, the average worker makes 3.2 percent less than a similar worker in a non-RTW state.”
Capital Times
February 23, 2024
Unemployment benefits for striking workers: Labor unions want the state to extend unemployment benefits for striking workers, which would give unions a significant advantage in protracted work stoppages. New York and New Jersey already allow striking workers to apply for unemployment, with more than half a dozen other states also considering it, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Minnesota Reformer
February 23, 2024
The reimbursement rate increases come at a time when Massachusetts remains one of the most expensive states when it comes to childcare.
The Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank specializing in economic research, found the average annual cost of infant care in the Bay State is nearly $21,000.
WAMC Northeast Public Radio
February 23, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, calls this difference the “teacher pay penalty.” EPI calculated that, in 2022, teachers earned only 74 cents on the dollar compared with comparably educated professionals. The right-leaning Hoover Institution reached a similar conclusion in its 2020 report on educator compensation, showing that, even adjusting for factors such as talent and experience, “teachers are paid 22 percent less than they would be if they were in jobs in the U.S. economy outside of teaching.”
The Washington Post
February 23, 2024
A 2022 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that average weekly wagers for teachers have remained “relatively flat” since 1996, with teachers making more than 14% less in Ohio when compared with other college-educated workers.
The 74
February 23, 2024
Nebraska’s unemployment rate ranks among the nation’s lowest, with the statewide rate at 2.3% for the last three months of 2023. But estimates from the Economic Policy Institute show unemployment among Black workers in Nebraska at 3.5% during the same period and Latino unemployment at 3%.
Omaha World-Herald
February 23, 2024
Generally, employers can get away with paying lower wages in states without strong unions: According to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank focused on low- and middle-income workers, unionization rates in Michigan declined faster than unionization rates nationally after that state passed right-to-work laws in 2012; wages, which had been higher than the national median, fell below it. (That legislation was repealed in 2023, making Michigan the first state in more than half a century to repeal its right-to-work-law.)
Cost of Living Project
February 23, 2024
Reprint of Daniel Costa and Heidi Shierholz blog, “Immigrants are not hurting U.S.-born workers.”
In These Times
February 23, 2024
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows Georgia joins nearly three dozen other states where childcare is now more expensive than some college tuitions. According to their numbers, parents in the peach state spend an average of $8,530 dollars a year on childcare per child. That comes out to more than $700 per month. The Economic Policy Institute says it now costs $1,324 a year more for daycare in Georgia than the average in-state tuition for a four-year public college.
13 WMAZ
February 23, 2024