The U.S. has lost more than 5 million manufacturing jobs within the past 25 years, hindering the financial mobility of workers without a college degree and taking a particularly heavy toll on workers of color, according to a new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. At the same time, low-wage service jobs have soared.
USA Today
February 4, 2022
“Teachers don’t go into their occupation to get rich,” said Lawrence Mishel, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute, and one of authors of that study. “But they do have some expectation of being able to provide for the family and have a house and send their own kids to college. And I think that’s exceedingly difficult.”
Marketplace
February 4, 2022
Overall wages for leisure and hospitality employees are still strong relative to pre-pandemic times, but the deceleration in wages is largely attributed to the impact of the Omicron variant. “The scramble for available workers is a little less intense than it was six or seven months ago,” says Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute.
Time Magazine
February 4, 2022
State and local governments currently spend only $11.8 billion on early childhood education, compared with the $42 billion parents pay out of pocket each year, according to a 2020 analysis from the Economic Policy Institute. Since some states — such as Colorado, Iowa and Idaho — have money to spare right now, in part because of Covid relief funding, boosting child care wages would be an excellent investment.
New York Times
February 4, 2022
As a policy matter, states and cities should think about requirements that would make public-facing jobs safer so older people feel comfortable returning to them, at least part time, said Monique Morrisey, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute specializing in retirement security. A healthier generation of older workers has become a mainstay of the workforce in recent years.
Pew Stateline
February 4, 2022
“The question then is, ‘How quickly will they come down?’” said Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “You could see a recovery [in the labor market] as early as February, and certainly March, if we can start putting the pandemic behind us.”
NPR
February 4, 2022
The Obama Labor Department tried to fix all this. It made a practical decision to leave intact the dog’s breakfast that Bush had made of the duties test but doubled the wage ceiling from $23,660 to $47,476. If you earned less than $47,476, it didn’t matter what your boss said your duties were, he owed you overtime whenever you worked more than 40 hours. In future years the ceiling would be “indexed” to inflation, thereby preventing another post-1975 slide. The Obama rule expanded overtime coverage from 7 percent of workers to 23 percent, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute.
The New Republic
February 4, 2022
The Economic Policy Institute says in 33 states, day care for a 1-year-old costs more than in-state college tuition.
Poynter
February 4, 2022
The child care crunch hits new parents particularly hard, because few day care centers accept infants younger than 6 weeks. Infant care is staggeringly expensive. Wisconsin ranks 20th among states and the District of Columbia for most expensive infant care — with an average annual cost of nearly $12,600, according to the Economic Policy Institute. A minimum wage worker in Wisconsin would need to work full time for 43 weeks to pay that bill.
Wisconsin Watch
February 4, 2022
The child care crunch hits new parents particularly hard, because few day care centers accept infants younger than 6 weeks. Infant care is staggeringly expensive. Wisconsin ranks 20th among states and the District of Columbia for most expensive infant care — with an average annual cost of nearly $12,600, according to the Economic Policy Institute. A minimum wage worker in Wisconsin would need to work full time for 43 weeks to pay that bill.
Wisconsin Watch
February 4, 2022