In the Working Economics Blog, Josh Bivens, of the Economic Policy Institute writes, “The debt limit needs to be abolished — either formally or effectively.” The overwhelming majority of rich nations don’t have a statutory debt limit. Bivens argues, “The debt limit measures nothing coherent and has no relationship to any serious measure of the economic burden imposed by the nation’s debt. It has as much relevance to the nation’s objective economic health as today’s horoscope.
Boulder Weekly
February 17, 2023
“Hitting the debt ceiling is terrible, and making a deal that hamstrings our economy is also terrible,” said Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.
Wall Street Journal
February 17, 2023
But nothing says “esteem” more directly than paychecks, and, by that metric, American society has for years been systematically devaluing the work teachers do. Between 1996 and 2021, the Economic Policy Institute’s Sylvia Allegretto detailed last August, average teacher weekly wages adjusted for inflation rose a miniscule $29. Over the same years, inflation-adjusted weekly wages for other college graduates rose over 15 times faster, up $445.
Inequality.org
February 17, 2023
It’s against the law for companies to retaliate against workers who are trying to organize unions—but that often doesn’t stop them from doing so. According to recent research from the Economic Policy Institute, employers were charged with illegally firing workers in 24% of all union elections. That research uses the “most comprehensive measure of firings,” according to EPI, and comes from data from the NLRB between 2019 and 2022, as well as unfair labor practice filings from 2018 through 2022.
Fast Company
February 17, 2023
Advocates and experts also point to expanded access to no or low-cost early childhood education as a solution that not only benefits children but parents and the economy as a whole. Colorado ranks eighth in the country for most expensive child care, with an average annual cost of $15,325, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Rocky Mountain PBS
February 17, 2023
According to a 2022 study from the Economic Policy Institute – a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that addresses low- and middle-income workers’ needs – the teacher “wage penalty” – that is, how much less teachers make than comparable workers – grew from 6.1% in 1996 to 23.5% in 2021. Put another way, the average weekly wages of public school teachers – adjusted for inflation – increased just US$29 from 1996 to 2021, from $1,319 to $1,348 in 2021 dollars. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted weekly wages of other college graduates rose $445, from $1,564 to $2,009, over the same period.
The Conversation
February 17, 2023
“The picture right now is actually still pretty rosy, so you’re not seeing that kind of slowdown in a lot of the topline jobs numbers,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Marketplace
February 17, 2023
Employers regularly employ illegal tactics to suppress unions. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) of the latest government data on Unfair Labor Practice charges and union elections shows that employers were charged with violating federal Labor law in nearly 40 percent of elections – everything from firing to retaliation to changing work terms.
Labor Tribune
February 17, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, wage theft costs U.S. workers as much as $50 billion per year — a number far higher than all robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts combined. While we’re taught to be vigilant and lock our homes and cars to prevent robberies, most workers are not trained on how to identify wage theft and claw back stolen wages. Wage theft is also more likely to affect low-wage workers, immigrant workers, and workers with less education and fewer resources.
In These Times
February 17, 2023
While the federal minimum wage has remained stagnant at $7.25 per hour since 2009, many states have continually raised theirs. “States began instituting their own, higher minimum wages during periods of federal inaction,” says Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “So the longer the gap between federal minimum wage increases, the more likely some states went ahead and raised their own state-level minimum.”
CNBC
February 17, 2023