A recent analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that in states where the federal minimum wage prevails ― many of them in the South ― 19% of workers are earning less than $15 per hour. In the 30 states that have set a higher minimum wage than the federal rate, that figure drops to 13%.
Huffpost
May 5, 2023
Proponents of higher minimum wages say that the federal threshold is so low that it results in poverty for many families. The federal minimum wage has lost nearly 30% of its purchasing power since it was last hiked in 2009, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Examiner
May 5, 2023
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is planning to make an announcement (with no additional details provided) at 11 a.m. on minimum wage. The chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will be joined by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry, and Economic Policy Institute President Heidi Shierholz during the announcement.
Politico
May 5, 2023
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, said the effect of minimum wage increases was one of the most studied aspects of her discipline.
They had been shown time and again to reduce inequality, poverty and gender and racial wage gaps, she said, while also reducing child abuse, teen pregnancy, suicides and reoffending rates — all without causing substantial job losses.
“When you raise the minimum wage, it makes our economy stronger,” she told reporters. “The policies of the last four-plus decades that have increased inequality… have also slowed overall economic growth.”
Barron’s
May 5, 2023
Even though job openings at U.S. companies also fell in March, Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said, “the more persuasive signs of [economic] cooling are coming from rising layoffs.”
CFO
May 5, 2023
The median white family has $188,200 in retirement savings, compared to $36,000 for Hispanics, and just $25,000 for Blacks, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Employee Benefit News
May 5, 2023
Against this legislative drive, surveys show an already alarming surge in child labor violations. The number of children employed in violation of child labor laws has increased by 37% in the last year and by 283% since 2015, from 1,012 reported cases of children working in violation of child labor laws to 3,876 in 2022, according to a March 2023 report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
“I think what we’re seeing in terms of the state push right now should be viewed as the latest multi-industry push to really wipe out regulation of child labor, not in one fell swoop, but that’s always sort of the end goal of the various pushes coming all at the same time,” said Jennifer Sherer, senior state policy coordinator for the Economic Analysis and Research Network (Earn) Worker Power Project, and author of the EPI report.
The Guardian
May 5, 2023
Both violations of child labor laws and proposals to roll back child labor protections are on the rise across the country, according to a March 2023 report from the Economic Policy Institute.
At least 10 states have introduced or passed laws rolling back child labor protections in the past two years. And the number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws increased 37 percent in the last year, according to the report.
The Quad-City Times
May 5, 2023
In a blog post earlier this week, Josh Bivens and Samantha Sanders of the Economic Policy Institute dismissed as “laughable” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) claim that the Republican proposal “would put the United States on a path to ‘fiscal responsibility’ and lower inflation.
“The biggest driver of deficits for the last 20 years has been a steady trend toward ever-larger tax cuts for corporations and the richest U.S. households,” Bivens and Sanders wrote. “No one who actually wants to reduce the federal deficit should be looking to do that on the backs of the poorest and most vulnerable Americans.”
Common Dreams
May 5, 2023