A May report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and Howard University professor Ron Hira, who studies the H-1B, concluded that outsourcers comprise half of the top 30 H-1B employers and “make heavy use of the H-1B program.” Major Silicon Valley technology firms “take advantage of program rules in order to legally pay many of their H-1B workers below the local median wage for the jobs they fill,” the report said.
The Mercury News
February 9, 2021
In Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District — which includes all of Racine and Kenosha counties and parts of four other counties, and is represented by Janesville Republican Bryan Steil — an estimated 28% of workers (97,000 people in total) would be directly affected by the increase to a minimum wage of $15, according to a model from the Economic Policy Institute based on federal data.
The average wage increase for those workers would be 18%. Of those 97,000 workers: less than half of them (38,000) would be 16-24 years old. And 44,000 of them would be 25-54 years old.
The Journal Times
February 9, 2021
I would go further than that. State legislative attempts to override the authority of local governments strip communities of their right to self-governance. Particularly in a state like Texas, where rural and suburban communities exert outsized influence in shaping policy at the state level, state-set limits to local governmental control deny urban Texans their voice and representation on the local issues that often have the greatest impact on their lives and communities. It shouldn’t be a surprise that, too frequently, these are issues that disproportionately affect people of color. “You have these predominantly white state legislators making decisions and setting ceilings that keep communities of color from putting into place policies,” says Julia Wolfe, an analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, who spoke to Governing.
D Magazine
February 9, 2021
Nearly half of a congressional district would get a raise with a $15 minimum wage
- U.S. Representative Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) has previously supported regional increases in minimum wage based on the cost of living. Now, the debate over raising the minimum wage to $15 is back. In Sewell’s district, 43% of workers would receive a pay raise if the minimum wage increased to $15, according to the Economic Policy Institute. This would average out to a 22% increase for those workers, or $4,700 per year.
Yellowhammer News
February 9, 2021
Proponents focused on the positives in the analysis. “CBO finds that for a very small relative cost to the government, the benefits of the Raise the Wage Act are enormous,” Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute, said during a conference call scheduled Monday by her organization.
“It will increase the average incomes of low- and lower-middle-income families, it will reduce poverty, it will shift money from corporate profits toward wages of low-income workers, it will reduce inequality,” Shierholz said.
LA Times
February 9, 2021
El centro de estudios progresista Economic Policy Institute dijo el lunes que el informe del CBO esta “equivocado” e indicó que otros análisis mostraron que no habrá efectos negativos.
Agence France Press (AFP)
February 9, 2021
There’s a lot of debate about how much and who should get a third round of direct payments from the government. But the back and forth on the issue may not be all that necessary.
“It’s rare. When we have the cards set up to actually have a genuinely rapid economic recovery that could push unemployment really low in the next couple of years, I think that might happen, we should seize that opportunity,” said Josh Bivens, Research Director at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for the low and middle income.
Bivens says further targeting of direct payment checks isn’t really necessary because no one rich is getting them to begin with.
He adds that narrowing them too much could leave out people who may have had a solid 2019, but then had devastating changes in 2020, since the payments are based on 2019 tax returns.
Scripps National News
February 9, 2021
If Democrats want to win back working-class voters and keep the loyalty of minorities— who, according to a 2016 Economic Policy Institute study, will constitute a majority of blue-collar voters by 2032—they need to focus on creating well-paying jobs for non-college graduates.
Newsweek
February 9, 2021
We talked to Heidi Shierholz about it. She’s a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute. She agrees with a lot of the CBO report, but she says the CBO overstates what a higher minimum wage would cost the government.
Heidi Shierholz: That said, even if you take their numbers at face value, they still find that for a very relatively low price to the federal government, you’d get a minimum wage increase that did really important things for the U.S. economy — pulling people out of poverty, reducing inequality, getting more income to low-income people.
Marketplace
February 9, 2021