“We believe that the CBO’s assumptions on the scale of job loss are just wrong and inappropriately inflated relative to what cutting-edge economics literature would indicate,” The Economic Policy Institute wrote in a blog post on the report. “The median employment effect of the minimum wage across studies of low-wage workers is essentially zero, according to a 2019 review of the evidence.”
Business Insider
February 17, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the unemployment rate for workers ages 16-24 jumped from 8.4 percent to 24.4 percent between spring 2019 and spring 2020, while the rate for ages 25 and older rose from 2.8 percent to 11.3 percent.
Rewire
February 17, 2021
Research has shown that a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour would be a huge boon to Americans and the economy, lifting the wages of 32 million workers, including nearly 60 percent of workers whose total family incomes are below the poverty line, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). It would particularly be helpful for Black and Latino workers, who are on average paid less than white workers, EPI says.
Truthout
February 17, 2021
A minimum wage increase would raise pay for 32 million workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Although it would likely be beneficial for millions of Americans, the Congressional Budget Office found that this hike would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty but could also mean a loss of 1.4 million jobs.
Business Insider
February 17, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonpartisan think tank, H-2A workers are already underpaid compared to other workers.
“In 2019, the average wage of all nonsupervisory farmworkers was $13.99 per hour, according to USDA, while the average wage for all workers in 2019 was $26.53 per hour, meaning the farmworker wage was just 53% of the average for all workers,” read an EPI post. “And the average wage for production and nonsupervisory nonfarm workers—the most logical cohort for workers outside of agriculture to compare with farmworkers—was $23.51.
The Salinas Californian
February 17, 2021
Several economists have offered critiques of the CBO’s job loss projections. Arindrajit Dube, a professor of economics at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, previously told Insider that he found the projections “pessimistic,” and the Economic Policy Institute released its own blog post discussing the report’s projections.
Business Insider
February 17, 2021
On average, Black workers are paid 73 cents on the white dollar; Black men make only 71 cents of what their white male counterparts earn, with Black women making 64 cents to the white male dollar, according to data obtained from the Economic Policy Institute.
Spectrum News
February 17, 2021
Boston Herald
February 17, 2021
But proponents argue that better-quality studies tend to show that increases in the minimum wage do not hurt employment. The CBO did not properly weight the higher-quality studies in its analysis, said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
CNN
February 17, 2021
Along with a D.C.-based energy company, Revolution Solar, Wise has started a round of community workshops to introduce D.C. residents to the job opportunities offered by the solar industry. Wise, who is not an employee of the company, is trying to bring awareness of those possibilities as the city deals with a Black unemployment rate of 11.3 percent compared to a White unemployment rate of 2 percent in 2020, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Washington Post
February 17, 2021