Heidi Shierholz, the president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said at the press conference that the economic impact of an increase to the federal minimum wage is one of the most-studied subjects in economics.
“The weight of that evidence shows that (when the) minimum wage increases, they raise the wages of our lowest wage-workers, they reduce inequality, they reduce poverty, they reduce child poverty, they reduce gender wage gaps, they reduce racial wage gaps because Black and brown workers, due to the broad impacts of structural racism on our labor markets, are disproportionately concentrated in the lowest-wage jobs,” Shierholz said.
New Jersey Monitor
May 4, 2023
Sanders made the announcement outside the U.S. Capitol where he was flanked by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry, and Economic Policy Institute President Heidi Shierholz.
UPI
May 4, 2023
“Haven’t wages for low-wage workers naturally grown in the tight labor markets of the pandemic recovery?” asked Heidi Shierholz, the former chief economist for the Department of Labor.
“Yes, they have,” she said. “But so has the cost of living.”
ABC News
May 4, 2023
In 2021, the average pay for CEOs was 399 times what a typical worker made, according to an analysis of publicly available data by the Economic Policy Institute. That’s an increase of 1,460% since 1978, the left-leaning think tank said.
MarketWatch
April 28, 2023
According to a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, employers spend $433m per year on union avoidance consultants to bolster employer union-busting efforts.
The Guardian
April 28, 2023
According to a March 30 blog post from the Economic Policy Institute, OSHA data from 29 states (including Iowa) shows that, between January 1, 2015, and May 31, 2022, employers reported 74,025 workers with severe injuries — an average of 27 per day.
In These Times
April 28, 2023
An Economic Policy Institute report released in January showed an uptick in union organizing last year. The report, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Labor Relations Board, found that 200,000 more workers in the U.S. were represented by a union in 2022 compared to 2021, for a total of more than 16 million union-represented workers.
The Hill
April 28, 2023
Pay for top executives has skyrocketed by 1460% since 1978 according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, and more than 80% of their pay is typically stock-related.
“This escalation of CEO compensation and of executive compensation more generally has fueled the growth of top 1% and top 0.1% incomes, leaving fewer of the gains of economic growth for ordinary workers and widening the gap between very high earners and the bottom 90%,” wrote analysts at the institute. “The economy would suffer no harm if CEOs were paid less (or were taxed more).”
CNN Business
April 28, 2023
The average salary is roughly $4,000 more than the Economic Policy Institute considers Indiana’s minimum living wage, representing the amount needed for an adult and a child to lead “a modest yet adequate” lifestyle. The NEA also cited the institute saying Indiana teachers make 79 cents on the dollar compared to similarly educated professionals in the state.
The Center Square
April 28, 2023
In a blog post earlier this week, Josh Bivens and Samantha Sanders of the Economic Policy Institute dismissed as “laughable” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) claim that the Republican proposal “would put the United States on a path to ‘fiscal responsibility’ and lower inflation.
Common Dreams
April 28, 2023