According to the Economic Policy Institute, care for one child in Pennsylvania nears $12,000 per year — a cost so prohibitive that nearly 1.6 million parents have left the workforce entirely. During his budget address last week, Mr. Shapiro said the state’s economy loses $3.5 billion each year because of lacking child care options.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
March 17, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute notes that while “[n]early half of all nonunion workers say they want a union in their workplace… only 12% of all workers are actually represented by a union.” The PRO Act closes loopholes in current labor law and smooths the unionization process, as can be seen here.
Uprise Rhode Island
March 17, 2023
The day that the FTC announced the rule, Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, celebrated on Twitter. The EPI analyzes economic issues and workplace conditions from the perspective of workers.
KPVI
March 17, 2023
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, agreed with the sentiment, adding in a statement, “This bill would help protect workers against the harmful effects of overwork by recognizing the need to redefine standards around the work week.”
Deseret News
March 17, 2023
And in a forthcoming report from the Economic Policy Institute, real wage growth, which is adjusted for inflation, increased during the pandemic. “Between 2019 and 2022, hourly wage growth was strongest at the bottom of the wage distribution. The 10th percentile real hourly wage (adjusted for inflation) grew 9.0% over the three-year period. Wage growth was about one-third as fast for middle-wage workers,” it read.
Bucks County Courier Times
March 17, 2023
This problem is not new. According to a 2008 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), banks gave 52.9% of subprime mortgages to Black customers while only 26.1% went to white customers. (And studies have shown that creditworthiness can’t account for these disparities, per the EPI.) In 2020, the New York Times reported instances of racial profiling when Black customers perform mundane bank transactions.
Morning Brew
March 17, 2023
Valerie Wilson, director at the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy, urged against putting too much stock into one month’s report, noting that the rising labor force participation rate shows more confidence in the labor market.
CNBC
March 17, 2023
It’s no secret that chief execs, especially those that helm major companies, make a lot of money, with the average CEO — who might rake in a solid $16-or-so million a year — earning nearly 400 times what the average employee makes, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Futurism
March 17, 2023
Another concerning gap in teacher wages is the overall disparity between educators and similarly educated individuals in different professions. This finding has been described by the Economic Policy Institute as the “teacher pay penalty,” where teachers on average earned 76.5 cents on the dollar in 2021 from what similar college-educated professionals were paid.
K-12 Dive
March 17, 2023
Low salaries and high stress are two of the main contributors to a nationwide teacher shortage that has developed and worsened since around the time of the Great Recession, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Now, some members of Congress are hoping to address the pay problem.
CNBC
March 17, 2023