Popularity for unions is higher than it’s been in recent memory. According to a recent Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans say they approve of labor unions. In 2022, more than 60 million workers wanted to join a union but could not. Despite growing support for unions and an uptick in union election petitions across the country, union density has declined over last several decades as anti-worker corporations have gone to great lengths to suppress workers’ rights to form a union. According to the Economic Policy Institute, employers spend nearly $340 million dollars a year to hire union busting firms to help them stop workers from organizing,
UAW
March 3, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), childcare is unaffordable for typical families in New York, as infant care for one child would take up 22.1% of a median family’s income. For low-income families, childcare would eat up 62.7% their earnings.
GO Banking Rates
March 3, 2023
“For low-income workers, if they can put away $2,000 and get a 50-cent match for each dollar, that’s a significant boost to them,” said Monique Morrissey, economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “That will help, but it’s several years into the future. So right now, we see that these [auto-IRA] plans help in terms of convenience.”
CNBC
March 3, 2023
In California and across the country, teachers are navigating a difficult terrain: making enough money to afford living in the districts where they serve. Research by the Economic Policy Institute’s Sylvia Allegretto found that public school teachers nationally make nearly 24% less in weekly earnings than similarly credentialed college graduates in other fields. When benefits such as healthcare were taken into account, the total compensation penalty was 14%, the widest gap since 1979.
The Guardian
March 3, 2023
The stores typically operate with lean staffing, and their employees, by some measures, are paid at the bottom of the retail industry’s scale. According to a survey by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, 92% of Dollar General workers earn less than $15 an hour, lower than many other companies surveyed, including Burger King, Walmart and Dunkin’. About 20% of Dollar General workers earn less than $10 an hour.
Seattle Times
March 3, 2023
A proposed $21.25 hourly minimum wage would benefit 41.8% of the state’s Black workforce directly or indirectly, according to nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI). That’s roughly 508,600 Black New Yorkers estimated to receive an earnings boost if the Raise the Wage Act is passed.
New York Amsterdam News
March 3, 2023
Takano’s bill has been endorsed by major labor unions like AFL-CIO, United Food and Commercial Workers and Service Employees International Union, as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is made up of over 100 members of Congress. Takano first introduced a version of the bill in 2021, with the support of groups like the Economic Policy Institute.
Truthout
March 3, 2023
The CBPP and other policy groups are warning that — unless the Fed stops raising interest rates—the already shaky economy is likely to plunge into recession, putting millions of people out of work. Further rate hikes “pose a dire threat to what could be an excellent 2023 for the economic prospects of America’s working families,” Josh Bivens, of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said in a blog post.
CBS News
March 3, 2023
Nearly 92% of domestic workers in the United States are women, and more than half are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American, the Economic Policy Institute estimated in 2020.
Christian Science Monitor
March 3, 2023