“I think that it’s really important to know where the inflation is coming from. It’s not coming from the labor market,” she said. “Wage growth has not been beating inflation. So if anything, wage growth is actually pulling down on inflation.”
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As Brink said, abortion is not separate from so-called bread-and-butter issues, and the movement for workers’ and reproductive rights should be far closer than they are. Our tendency for silo organizing also leads to a habit of seeing intersections as threats. But as Asha Banerjee, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute writes, “Women’s economic lives, livelihoods, and mobility are at the heart of the reasoning to overrule Roe.” Research, Banerjee notes, shows the deep interconnection of our economic and reproductive lives: “Some of the economic consequences of being denied an abortion include a higher chance of being in poverty even four years after; a lower likelihood of being employed full time; and an increase in unpaid debts and financial distress lasting years.”
The Progressive September 23, 2022 -
“Congress has failed to act to protect workers who are recruited abroad through temporary work visa programs,” explains Daniel Costa, director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute. “The abuses of labor recruiters have included requiring the payment of illegal fees to obtain jobs, which can result in debt bondage, as well as cases of wage theft, discrimination, human trafficking and other abuses. But since these U.S. work arrangements are being set up abroad, it is difficult to regulate the behavior of recruiters.”
Nationally, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates the number of temporary work visa holders is 1.6 million, while Costa believes it’s closer to 2 million. The DHS says about 300,000 work in California, a number they admit is not a direct count but an estimate. Costa estimates that AB 364 would cover at least 310,500 workers.
Ultimately, however, given the abuses that can and do happen to people on work visas, both bills simply try to impose a degree of regulation and protect at least some rights. Neither bill addresses the impact of the work visa programs on the surrounding workforce. “The power that visa programs give employers, and the individuals and companies that they contract with to recruit workers, is then used to undercut wages and labor standards,” warns Costa.
Capital & Main September 23, 2022 -
As the country debates the merits of “quiet quitting,” it’s another phenomenon — “quiet fleecing” — that should have workers’ attention.
Coined by the Economic Policy Institute, “quiet fleecing” describes decades of stagnant wage growth in the US despite rising productivity and costs of living. In theory, workers’ wages rise in tandem with their productivity, or the output they provide to a company. And for workers to benefit from those raises, they should outpace inflation. Up until the 1970s, that was roughly the case in the US. But then something changed. The wages of the 1% began to outpace economic growth and inflation, while the pay of the average worker fell behind.
“For much of the last 40, 50 years it’s been close to zero wage growth or compensation growth for typical workers,” EPI economist Elise Gould told Insider. “Those trends in hourly wage growth have profound consequences for American living standards and how well people in this country are able to make ends meet. And I think that the growing economy has not universally translated into broadly shared prosperity.”
“Workers have had to work more hours to get ahead because their hourly wage has grown very slowly over this longer time period,” she said. “I think that there’s been a reevaluation for some workers in the pandemic of what they wanted from their jobs.”
“When it becomes so hard to make ends meet on the wages that they have, some people are seeing, maybe there’s a better way.”
Gould attributes several factors to the rise of “quiet fleecing” over the past decades — including stagnant minimum wages, the decline of unions, and the growing pay gap between CEOs and their employees.
“Smaller and smaller pieces of the pie are coming to the vast majority of workers and their families in this country,” she said.
She also points to the Federal Reserve’s past prioritization of low inflation and its allowance of excess unemployment, both of which have hurt workers’ bargaining power. As the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to combat today’s surge in inflation, she’s concerned that a resulting economic slowdown would ultimately have the same effect.
“One of the threats of allowing the unemployment rate to rise is that not only you could have millions of people lose their jobs, but also workers — even who have their jobs — lose some of that leverage to be able to build up their wages, because they’re less scarce,” she said.
While many low income workers have received pay bumps over the past few years, they could be disproportionately impacted by a weakened labor market. These workers are not only the most likely to see job losses when unemployment ticks up, Gould says, but the most likely to “require a very tight labor market” to see wage growth.
While the Federal Reserve is aware of these risks, it may think some of this “pain” is needed to slow inflation. But Gould thinks directing this pain at the labor market would be counterproductive.
Business Insider September 23, 2022 -
Even as America’s large grocery chains boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, their essential workers who held the frontlines have continued to earn low wages under poor working conditions. Some of the largest, most profitable grocery stores—including Aldi, Kroger, Safeway and Walmart—pay many of their workers less than $15 an hour, according to a company wage tracker published by the Economic Policy Institute and the Shift Project in April.
Newsweek September 23, 2022 -
“I think there may be some labor hoarding,” says Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “Employers are holding on to workers because they had such a hard time rehiring, so they’re thinking ‘let’s not move too quickly,’ even if they expect weakness coming.”
While the tech industry has made headlines for laying off workers, it’s not the only one that will feel the sting of rising rates. Gould says that the Fed’s aggressive monetary policy will hit different industries harder and sooner because of their sensitivity to rate fluctuations.
“Construction–commercial or housing construction, will take longer to slow down because those lead times are 5 to 6 months away,” Gould says. “We’ll see a faster drop-off on things that people might get a loan for because they’re looking at much higher interest rates which are hitting their pockets now.”
Forbes September 23, 2022 -
But job cuts do affect some groups more than others, said Valerie Wilson at the Economic Policy Institute.
“We know that the Black unemployment rate is typically double the white unemployment rate. And we see that it rises faster, rises sooner, rises higher.” She added that this disparity raises questions about how companies conduct layoffs.
Marketplace September 23, 2022 -
The group shared an Economic Policy Institute analysis from 2019 indicating that increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would help 150,000 Nebraska workers.
Nebraska Examiner September 23, 2022 -
September 23, 2022
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But part-time work doesn’t just reduce your earnings in proportion to full-time work. Part-time positions tend to pay nearly 30% less per hour than equivalent full-time roles, according to a report published by the Economic Policy Institute. That has a ripple effect on finances—whether that be emergency funds, retirement contributions, or overall financial security. Part-time work can also potentially stall women’s career trajectories.
Fast Company September 21, 2022 -
Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute notes that the U.S. economy is already contracting, with housing starts plummeting, which will cause construction jobs to decline. At the same time, the unusually strong dollar — at or around par with the euro for the first time in years — is reducing demand for U.S. exports. Continuing to raise rates could be “really damaging,” he says.
Salon September 21, 2022