First, they face employers that are highly mobilized and unified in their commitment to sacrificing the rights of ordinary people to make higher profits. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently broke down how much money is being spent today on whittling away the wages and benefits of their employees—either by preventing them from unionizing or by seeking to break the unions their employees have already voted for. According to journalist Tyler Walicek, even with the EPI’s caveats about what spending they couldn’t fully account for, it concluded that “total spending on the union-busting industry amounts to at least $340 million a year.”
CNN
February 17, 2023
No other state in the country has a $20 minimum wage nor legislation on the books to reach that threshold in the coming years. The $15 per hour wage in Massachusetts that took effect Jan. 1 ranks fourth-highest among states and territories., trailing Washington, D.C. ($16.10), Washington state ($15.74) and California ($15.50), according to data tracked by the Economic Policy Institute.
WBZ News Radio
February 10, 2023
Elise Gould, of the Economic Policy Institute, takes the wide view.
“Except for in very short periods of time, the late ’90s or the few years leading up to the pandemic recession, workers have had very little leverage,” Gould told us. “You see that in wages, so then why wouldn’t you see that in their ability to take benefits?”
The Washington Post
February 10, 2023
Data from the NLRB showed that employers were charged with violating federal labor law in roughly four out of every ten union elections between 2018 and 2022, according to research conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington D.C.
The American Banker
February 10, 2023
Scarlet Fu & Katie Greifeld bring you the latest news and analysis leading up to the final minutes and seconds before and after the closing bell on Wall Street and tackles the surprising jobs report, the latest on Adani and looking ahead to the Exchange ETF Conference Guests Today: Stephen Stanley of Amherst Pierpont, Tiffany Wilding of PIMCO, Alex Merutka of Craftsman+, Jeremy Siegel of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Mimi Duff of GenTrust, Jason Pride of Glenmede, Julia Pollack of ZipRecruiter, Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, Vicki Salemi of Monster
Bloomberg TV
February 10, 2023
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, says it might be odd to think of policymakers as wanting to see wage growth fall.
“People are like ‘wait, what do you mean?’ And I think it’s important to note that inflation is actually coming down faster than nominal wage growth is coming down,” said Gould.
Marketplace
February 10, 2023
What did the tight labor market achieve? Probably its greatest accomplishment was to lift wages for low-income workers more than it did for other groups. An August study by the Dallas Fed found that wages for the bottom 20 percent in the income distribution rose 7.7 percent during the previous two years, compared to 4.8 percent for the middle 20 percent and 3.6 percent for the top 20 percent. Indeed, according to an April 2022 report by the Economic Policy Institute, low-wage workers (in this instance, the bottom 25 to 30 percent of the income distribution) were the only workers whose wage gains beat inflation.
The New Republic
February 10, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimated that total spending on the union-busting industry amounts to at least $340 million a year. However — because “loopholes in the law’s reporting requirements allow consultants and law firms [to] avoid reporting their work” — a full accounting is currently impossible.
Truthout
February 10, 2023
As a result of the investigation and with bipartisan support, former President Donald Trump initially imposed a 10% tariff on aluminum imports from countries other than Canada and Mexico in early 2018. After additional measures were taken against Chinese aluminum in particular, primary aluminum production in the U.S. increased 37.6% by 2020, breathing new life into the industry, according to a 2021 study by the Economic Policy Institute.
Courthouse News Service
February 10, 2023