Sanders made the announcement outside the U.S. Capitol where he was flanked by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry, and Economic Policy Institute President Heidi Shierholz.
UPI
May 5, 2023
Heidi Shierholz, the president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said at the press conference that the economic impact of an increase to the federal minimum wage is one of the most-studied subjects in economics.
“The weight of that evidence shows that (when the) minimum wage increases, they raise the wages of our lowest wage-workers, they reduce inequality, they reduce poverty, they reduce child poverty, they reduce gender wage gaps, they reduce racial wage gaps because Black and brown workers, due to the broad impacts of structural racism on our labor markets, are disproportionately concentrated in the lowest-wage jobs,” Shierholz said.
New Jersey Monitor
May 5, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a liberal think tank, argues the H-1B program is exploitive and needs to be reformed because employers use it to trade highly paid US workers for lower paid foreign workers. The group said the top 30 H-1B employers hired about 34,000 H-1B workers in 2022 while laying off about 85,000 workers in 2022 and early 2023.
“Rather than turning to the H-1B program as a last resort when US workers cannot be found, most employers hire H-1B workers because they can be underpaid and are de facto indentured to the employer,” EPI said in a blog post recently. “This is evidenced by government data showing that technology companies continue to hire H-1B workers in large numbers while significantly reducing the sizes of their workforces.”
The Register
May 5, 2023
“Haven’t wages for low-wage workers naturally grown in the tight labor markets of the pandemic recovery?” asked Heidi Shierholz, the former chief economist for the Department of Labor.
“Yes, they have,” she said. “But so has the cost of living.”
ABC News
May 5, 2023
While child labor exploitation is on the rise, Republican lawmakers across America are simultaneously pushing to weaken child labor laws. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), in 2023, bills proposing to weaken protections against child labor have already been introduced in seven states: Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
Popular Information
May 5, 2023
Several states, including Minnesota and Missouri, have also recently introduced youth employment bills that extend work hours for teens, according to the Economic Policy Institute. New Jersey and New Hampshire enacted such laws last year.
CNN
May 5, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, in the past two years, 10 states have introduced or passed laws that have weakened child labor laws. The 10 states include Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
News Nation Now
May 5, 2023
These pay increases would help districts recruit and retain staff, the bill said, citing an Economic Policy Institute report that found teachers face a “wage penalty” compared to professionals in other fields who have similar education backgrounds.
K-12 Dive
May 5, 2023
In the U.S., labor strikes generally are up 50% between 2021 and 2022, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Klowden says this is in part because of the push to maintain the economy by bringing people back to work quickly, particular essential workers, even before people were able to feel comfortable and safe at work.
LAist
May 5, 2023
About 60 million workers are subject to forced arbitration, according to a 2018 report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Fortune
May 5, 2023