Media clips

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• Punching In: NLRB Braces for Budget Fight as Agency Tasks Multiply

  Practically speaking, flat funding represents a budget cut because of inflation, as well as an expanding payroll due to cost-of-living adjustments and merit raises, said Celine McNicholas, general counsel and director of policy and governmental affairs at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  “But it’s not so much a question of just keeping the agency functioning and avoiding furloughs,” said McNicholas, who served as an NLRB official during the Obama administration. “If you want the agency to function the way the Biden administration wants—to be a bright spot for labor—then it absolutely needs a funding increase.”

  Bloomberg Law September 18, 2023
• UAW on strike after union negotiations with Big Three fail

  Profits at the Big Three collectively ballooned 92 percent from 2013 to 2022, totaling $250 billion, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute released Tuesday. CEO compensation swelled by 40 percent through the same period.

  The Hill September 15, 2023
• How a strike imperils Detroit’s drive to EVs

  According to a study by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, the big three automakers have posted cumulative profits of $250 billion in the last decade, while executive pay grew by 40 percent. The UAW wants those profits to be shared with workers. With skilled workers in high demand, the union is in a strong bargaining position.

  E&E News September 15, 2023
• How much does an average UAW autoworker make—and how much do Big Three CEOs get paid?

  Adjusting for inflation, autoworkers have seen their average wages fall 19.3% since 2008, according to Adam Hersh, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. That’s because autoworker “concessions made following the 2008 auto industry crisis were never reinstated,” Hersh said in a recent blog post, “including a suspension of cost-of-living adjustments.” 

  CBS Moneywatch September 15, 2023
• Watch this multi-millionaire CEO say the quiet part out loud about class warfare

  The wealthy’s arrogance is wholly unearned. In the U.S. from 1978 to 2021, according to the Economic Policy Institute, economic productivity grew more than 60%. Yet the typical worker’s wages — which in previous decades had roughly tracked productivity — grew just 18%. The wages of the top 1% of earners, however, grew 385%. CEO pay grew by more than 1,000%. 

  MSNBC September 15, 2023
• Bernie Sanders Slams Corporate Media Coverage of Looming UAW Strike

  From 2013 to 2022, profits for Big 3 automakers skyrocketed by 92 percent to the tune of $250 billion, according to number crunchers at the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Another $32 billion in profits across the three companies is forecast for 2023. CEO pay increased by 40 percent over the last decade, and the three companies paid out nearly $66 billion in shareholder dividend payments and stock buybacks to investors.

  EPI reports that concessions made by workers during the 2008 auto industry crisis and government bailout were never reinstated after companies such as General Motors and Chrysler (now Stellantis) got back on their feet. Wages at both union and nonunion automakers have fallen behind inflation as a result, with average real hourly earnings dropping 19 percent since 2008.

  Truthout September 15, 2023
• Ron DeSantis says warning of ‘hostile’ Florida for Black and LGBTQ+ visitors is political ‘stunt’

  Economic Policy Institute, which sources employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Local Area Unemployment Statistics and Current Population Survey, shows that in the second quarter of 2023 Florida’s Black unemployment rate was 3.6 per cent. 

  Pink News September 15, 2023
• Employers banned from hiring H-2A workers can ‘reinvent’ themselves to hire again

  Less than 1% of all U.S. farms are audited for labor law compliance each fiscal year, according to a 2023 Economic Policy Institute report co-authored by Daniel Costa, the director of immigration law and policy research. Even though this figure accounts for all U.S. farms — not just those who hire H-2A workers — more than half of investigations uncover H-2A violations. 

  “(The wage and hour division of the Department of Labor) is underfunded and understaffed,” Costa said. “Employers can pretty much do whatever they want, and there’s a very low likelihood they’ll ever be investigated.”

  Investigate Midwest September 15, 2023
• Romney reintroduces bill to raise federal minimum wage to $11, mandate E-Verify

  Twenty states, including Utah, set their current minimum wage at or below the federal level, or have no state minimum wage.

  The minimum wage is at its lowest value since 1956, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis from last summer.

  KSL.com September 15, 2023
• The UAW strike is underway. Here’s what it looks like so far.

  Adam Hersh, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said the Big Three can afford to pay workers more. In a blog post Tuesday, Hersh noted that the Big Three saw combined profits of $250 billion between 2013 to 2022 and expect to bring in more than $32 billion in additional profits for 2023. Hersh said in the post that the Big Three is arguing that paying workers more would jeopardize their efforts in producing more electric vehicles.

  “Despite all the company tricks, there is more than enough money for them to make EV investments, to pay their workers a fair share, and to maintain healthy profits,” Hersh wrote in the post. 

  CBS Moneywatch September 15, 2023
• S.F.’s new ‘overpaid executive tax’ brought in more money than expected. Can the city count on it?

  Nationally, CEO pay has risen significantly in the last four decades. A 2022 report from the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, projected that a CEO at one of the top 350 companies in the U.S. was paid paid 399 times as much as a typical worker in 2021 — a new record high from the last peak — a  372-to-1 ratio — in 2000. 

  According to the report, CEOs are getting paid more because so much of their pay is stock-related, widening the income gap between very high earners and the bottom 90%.

  San Francisco Chronicle September 15, 2023
• Liberal Groups Urge Congress To Reject Spending Cuts In Fight With House GOP

  The signers of the letter include high-profile liberal groups like the Center for American Progress, the Service Employees International Union, the Communication Workers of America, the Economic Policy Institute and the Quaker group Friends Committee on National Legislation, as well as newer groups like the Working Families Party, Groundwork Collaborative and the Economic Security Project.

  Huffpost September 15, 2023
• Billionaires Are Using an Abusive Farmworker Scam to Rake in More Profits

  While advocates say the program is crucial for small farmers facing staffing troubles, critics say it has enabled a powerful industry to suppress wages. Workers participating in the H-2A visa program are paid 55 percent of the average wage received by other nonsupervisory workers in the United States, according to an analysis published by the Economic Policy Institute.

  Jacobin September 15, 2023
• Minnesota household income continues to decline, putting more families in need

  Paywall.

  Minneapolis Star Tribune September 15, 2023
• Biden Labor Department Inspected Just 879 Farms Last Year — Factory Farms Included

  A new report from the Economic Policy Institute reveals that the federal government is failing to adequately protect one of society’s most vulnerable groups — farm workers. Despite promising to be “the most pro-worker and pro-union President in American history” the Biden Administration lags behind his predecessor, as farm labor investigations hit an all-time low.

  Sentient Media September 15, 2023
• Autoworkers Prepare to Strike for a Place in the EV Future

  A 2021 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor think tank, estimated that without policy intervention, meeting that goal would cost the US auto industry 75,000 jobs, since the majority of EV powertrain components are produced and assembled elsewhere.

  WIRED September 15, 2023
• College coaches’ million-dollar buyouts: Revealing the unparalleled power shift in sports’ lucrative realm

  Roughly half of all U.S. employers utilize non-competes in their contracts, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute in 2019.

  Sacramento Bee September 15, 2023
• Sky-high CEO pay is in focus as workers everywhere are demanding higher wages

  This kind of pay disparity was not always a given. In 1965, CEOs typically earned 20 times the typical worker’s pay in their industries, according to a report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

  But executive compensation soared, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, when CEOs were lionized and a large chunk of their pay was linked to their company’s stock performance. CEO pay skyrocketed along with the stock market, with the S&P 500 increasing by more than 1,000% since 1990. In the same period, workers’ wages, adjusted for inflation, have barely budged.

  In 2021, CEOs earned 399 times the typical worker, the EPI report found.

  “Obviously, CEOs should be the highest-paid person in an enterprise,” said EPI Chief Economist Josh Bivens, who co-wrote the report. “But the question is, how much higher than everyone else?”

  NPR September 15, 2023
• Child Labor Laws Are Being Repealed Across The Country. Why Now?

  Nina Mast, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, has been following the push to break down child labor protections.

  “This is part of a much larger agenda of privatization and deregulation of our public institutions,” says Mast. “When you have youth potentially foregoing higher education, future earnings, and the ability to earn higher wages in our economy, their wages are depressed over their entire lifetime. That’s bad for the macro economy. It’s bad for adults… When youth are taking these jobs at low wages, it really pushes adults out of the labor market. Why would an employer hire an adult at $15 an hour, if they can pay a young person $10?”

  Nina Mast went long with Fatherly on child labor, the laws that are sweeping the nation, why it’s a myth that paid work is good for kids, and why the child labor crisis isn’t new — it’s just been simmering under the surface.

  Fatherly September 15, 2023
• How leaders can address the CEO-to-worker pay gap

  Paywall.

  Fast Company September 15, 2023
• How the Army’s pay structure inspired this CEO to introduce pay transparency

  As executive compensation has ballooned in recent years, CEOs are being paid nearly 400 times as much as the average worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 

  Fast Company September 15, 2023
• What Is Hispanic Heritage Month, and How Is It Celebrated?

  Others also question the authenticity of some companies and organizations who “celebrate” this month for optics, but don’t focus on the issues facing the community—like the fact that Latina women make less than anyone else at 55¢ to the dollar a White man makes, or that Hispanic men made 14.9 percent less in hourly wages than comparable White men, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  Reader's Digest September 15, 2023
• The Enemies of America’s Children

  Record inflation was a major reason but perhaps not the largest. When Congress allowed the expanded Child Tax Credit to expire, that was “particularly damaging to child poverty,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  New York Magazine September 15, 2023
• Child poverty in the U.S. more than doubled as pandemic help expired

  Economists from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute released a statement that pointed out the effects of U.S. policy choices: “If policymakers were willing to maintain the pandemic-era CTC expansions, a much smaller share of children would be living in poverty.”

  MarketWatch September 15, 2023
• Black Texas High School Student Suspended For Locs Despite New Law Banning Hair Discrimination

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, 24 states have passed versions of the CROWN Act. California was the first state to enact the legislation in 2019. Legislation for a national CROWN Act has not been successful. 

  Essence September 15, 2023
• 5 million kids fell into poverty last year after Congress cut off Biden’s monthly checks to parents

  “The sharp reductions in child poverty in 2020 and 2021 that were engineered even in the face of a pandemic-damaged economy show the importance of policy decisions,” a statement from Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould and Ismael Cid-Martinez said. “If policymakers were willing to maintain the pandemic-era CTC expansions, a much smaller share of children would be living in poverty.”

  Business Insider September 15, 2023
• Companies withhold billions in wages annually through unpaid tips and overtime. Some lawmakers now demand stricter penalties.

  From 2017 to 2020, workers clawed back over $3 billion in stolen wages, according to the left-leaning nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute. That’s “just a small portion of wages stolen from workers across the country,” according to EPI, with the real cost of wage theft potentially being closer to $50 billion annually.

  Business Insider September 15, 2023
• US child poverty rate more than doubled in 2022 thanks to Manchin and GOP

  Elise Gould and Ismael Cid-Martinez of the Economic Policy Institute echoed Parrott’s assessment, saying in a statement that “if policymakers were willing to maintain the pandemic-era CTC expansions, a much smaller share of children would be living in poverty.”

  “More ambitious—but economically sustainable—expansions of our generally stingy welfare state could essentially eliminate poverty completely,” they added. “We know this vision isn’t politically realistic in the short run, but the policy lessons of 2020 and 2021 should not be lost with today’s report.”

  Raw Story September 15, 2023
• Child poverty in the US more than doubled after pandemic aid expired

  Though inflation shock has subsided for many families as the Biden administration points to a return to a strong labor market, “there are families that will have trouble finding enough work (and enough well-paid work) to provide economic security,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  “This is particularly true for families with children,” the group wrote in response to Tuesday’s report. “The sharp reductions in child poverty in 2020 and 2021 that were engineered even in the face of a pandemic-damaged economy show the importance of policy decisions. … More ambitious – but economically sustainable – expansions of our generally stingy welfare state could essentially eliminate poverty completely.”

  That’s not a “politically realistic” idea, the group acknowledges, but the lessons of 2020 and 2021 “should not be lost” with the Census Bureau’s report.

  The Independent September 15, 2023
• Child Poverty Doubled In 2022 After Key Pandemic Aid Expired

  “CHILD POVERTY IS A POLICY CHOICE,” Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “This is a disaster that didn’t have to happen.”

  Investopedia September 15, 2023