“These inequities absolutely existed before the pandemic,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “When we talk about returning to prepandemic levels, sure, we’re getting pretty close to that, but that just bakes in the disparities we had in the prepandemic labor market, and that’s just not good enough.”
CNBC
June 10, 2022
You can see the wealth gap in the latest earnings reports, too, which show that “while wealthier shoppers continue to splurge, low-income shoppers have pulled back faster than expected in the past two months,” The Associated Press reports. “The pullback among low-income shoppers has not affected overall spending, which is still up.” But the upward flow of wealth is bad for the economy, not just the poor and middle class, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute.
The Week
June 10, 2022
“The fact is that sending an infant to day care in many places across the country could be significantly more expensive than in-state public tuition to send them to college,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
June 10, 2022
Some economists have argued that, in addition to rising input costs, higher prices for consumer goods are a result of corporate power, which has allowed companies to mark up prices and increase profit margins. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, has said that “corporate pricing decisions in a pandemic-distorted environment are a propagator of inflation.” P&G declined to comment and Kimberly-Clark didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Bloomberg
June 10, 2022
Features Daniel Costa discussing immigration and visa reform.
HBO
June 9, 2022
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute paints a stark portrait of the economic plight of home health care workers, who are grossly underpaid in every state. The national average for these workers is a mere $13.50 an hour. But home health care workers typically make less than $12 an hour in the lowest-paying states—Louisiana, West Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.
Counter Punch
June 3, 2022
Emphasizing this point even further, Heidi Shierholz, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, recently tweeted, “People who are quitting are taking other jobs, not just leaving the workforce.” This points to a more complex reason for abandoning jobs, rather than simply not wanting to work. In fact, more and more people desire competitive wages, healthier environments, safer conditions and more respect. These are all things we’ve been providing our virtual professionals for years, because we know that the key to keeping your best and most valuable workers is letting them know that they’re your best and most valuable workers.
RIS Media
June 3, 2022
The average big company CEO earned 351 times more than the average worker on a realized basis in 2020, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute, first noted on Fortune.
Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance)
June 3, 2022