The Bureau of Labor Statistics identified three main culprits behind inflation since 2020 — energy price volatility, backlogs resulting from supply-chain issues, and price changes in auto-related industries. Separate pieces of research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute have shown that increased corporate profits have also been contributing to inflation.
Investment News
May 18, 2023
Thus far, most of the regulatory scrutiny has focused on the possibility that reduced competition would mean higher grocery prices for shoppers. But a report released this month by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reveals that the deal could have a major impact on the wages of grocery store workers. According to the EPI report, the proposed merger would “reduce the number of outside employment options available to workers, lowering grocery store workers’ annual wages by a total of $334 million.” That works out to about $450 less annually per worker, which is a significant reduction for a workforce already hovering at or below the poverty line.
Popular Information
May 17, 2023
Thanks to inflation and congressional inaction, the minimum wage now has less purchasing power than any point in time since 1956, according to the Economic Policy Institute. When Congress fails to raise the federal minimum wage despite skyrocketing costs of living, the job falls on state and local governments. At least 30 states and 50 cities and counties have raised the minimum wage past $7.25.
Truthout
May 17, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute, a research group, said the difference between teacher pay and pay for college-educated people in other professions reached a record 23.5 percent in 2021.
Voice of America
May 17, 2023
Now, none of them is saying the Federal Reserve has achieved that elusive soft landing in its effort to balance interest rate increases with economic growth. But Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute said so far, that does seem to be where we’re headed.
“We see inflation coming down and unemployment not yet going up,” she said.
Marketplace
May 12, 2023
The number of kids employed in direct violation of existing child labor laws, analysts at the Economic Policy Institute this past March reported, has soared 283 percent since 2015 — and 37 percent in just the last year alone. Last week brought the alarming news that three Kentucky-based McDonald’s franchises had kids as young as 10 working at 62 stores in four different states. Some of these under-working age children were working as late as 2 a.m.
Inequality.org
May 12, 2023
“I think that this recovery was tremendous compared to any recovery in recent history because of the scale of the investments that were made by policymakers,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, pointing to the child tax credit as one example that helped fuel the strong recovery. “So I think the incredible bounceback that we saw in employment and wage growth was driven directly from, in large part, to the kinds of investments that policymakers made in things like shoring up the unemployment insurance system, making that stronger, making it a better safety net for many workers.”
States Newsroom
May 12, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute said in an October report that “exorbitant CEO pay is a contributor to rising inequality that we could restrain without doing any damage to the wider economy.”
Winston-Salem Journal
May 12, 2023
Some economists also remain skeptical of the researchers’ findings that St. Paul’s minimum wage increases, which didn’t start taking effect until 2020, led to job losses in 2018 and 2019 as employers anticipated the coming changes. Ben Zipperer of the Economic Policy Institute called that finding “completely implausible.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
May 12, 2023
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute has released a study arguing that wealth for the top 1 percent has grown by double digits while falling for the remaining 99 percent.
Providence Magazine
May 12, 2023