As Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, explained Friday in a blog post welcoming the announcement:
Given the current budget constraints of federal labor standards enforcement agencies—which are funded at just one-twelfth the rate of immigration enforcement agencies—the use of deferred action in this manner will encourage workers and whistleblowers to speak out without fear and will act as a force multiplier for underfunded and understaffed labor enforcement agencies, thereby assisting them in their mission to protect worker rights and hold lawbreaking employers accountable. This will make workplaces safer for all workers.
Common Dreams
January 20, 2023
Even so, workers may have signed contracts in those states anyway. “People are given a big packet on their first day of work — in many cases, when they have already accepted a job and turned down other job offers — and it says, you can’t keep this job unless you sign these things,” said Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg
January 20, 2023
Nationally, despite two-thirds of Americans supporting raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, it has stood at $7.25 since July 2009. Since then, it has lost 21% of its purchasing power due to inflation (in 2021 dollars) and 34% since its peak in 1968, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Reader
January 20, 2023
With a new GOP-led House of Representatives, experts say it’s unlikely to be revisited any time in the near future. “It doesn’t look like there will be, at least in the next few years, any chances of anything happening legislatively,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute.
Harvest Public Media
January 20, 2023
CEO pay is completely out of whack. Average compensation for the top dog has skyrocketed by nearly 1,500% since 1978, according to the Economic Policy Institute. As of 2021, the organization found, the average CEO of a large company received compensation of $27.8 million.
KTLA
January 20, 2023
Broadly speaking, pay for chief executive officers rose by just over 11% from 2020 to 2021, according to a report issued late last year by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. In 2021, CEOs were paid 399 times as much as the typical worker, the highest multiple on record, EPI said. The average CEO compensation was $27.8 million in 2021.
MarketWatch
January 20, 2023
While most noncompetes tie up executives and skilled professionals, some 32 million Americans are bound by these clauses, not just high earners. A 2019 survey by the liberal Economic Policy Institute found that nearly 30% of the businesses where the average wage was less than $13 an hour used non-compete agreements.
The USA Today
January 20, 2023
… according to the Economic Policy Institute. Supporters described the policy as seeking to help workers plan for child care (paywall).
The Denver Post
January 20, 2023
Heidi Shierholz, president of the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute, said that 2022 “was a year of real worker power, due to huge job openings. The question will be whether that comes out on top compared to the very, very strong downward pressure on unionization, because of employer opposition.”
The Washington Post
January 20, 2023
Because of rising income inequality, the share of Americans’ incomes that are subject to the Social Security tax is at a nearly 50-year low, per a new report from the progressive Economic Policy Institute.
Axios
January 20, 2023