Areas of expertise
Labor policy • Wage inequality • Unemployment insurance • Long-term unemployment • Labor force participation • Minimum wage • Overtime
Biography
Heidi Shierholz leads EPI’s policy team, which monitors wage and employment policies coming out of Congress and the administration and advances a worker-first policy agenda. Throughout her career, Shierholz has educated policymakers, journalists, and the public about the effects of economic policies on low- and middle-income families. Her research and insights on labor and employment policy, the effects of automation on the labor market, wage stagnation, inequality, and many other topics routinely shape policy proposals and inform economic news coverage. Her work has been cited in many broadcast, radio, print, and online news outlets, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and HuffPost.
Shierholz was an economist at EPI from 2007 to 2014 and she rejoined EPI in 2017. From 2014 to 2017, she served the Obama administration as chief economist at the Department of Labor. She worked with Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and other department leaders to develop and execute initiatives to boost workers’ rights, wages, and benefits; to protect workers’ savings, and to increase workplace safety. She also provided economic analysis on the wages of jobs added during the recovery, brought heightened attention to the need for paid family leave, and fought for new regulations guaranteeing overtime pay for millions of workers and paid sick leave for over a million federal contract workers.
Prior to joining EPI in 2007, Shierholz was assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto. Shierholz commutes to work on a steel-framed bicycle and in her—limited—free time tends to her beehives.
Education
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan
M.A., Economics, University of Michigan
M.S., Statistics, Iowa State University
B.A., Mathematics, Grinnell College
By Content:
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Unemployment claims rise for second week in a row: Millions will lose federal unemployment benefits in December unless Senate Republicans act
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No improvement in initial unemployment claims as labor market gains falter
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With unemployment benefits for millions of workers set to expire in December, Senate Republicans must stop blocking aid
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What the next president inherits: More than 25 million workers are being hurt by the coronavirus downturn
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Over a million people still filed initial unemployment claims last week with no COVID-19 relief in sight
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Heading into election day, at least 30 million workers are being hurt by the coronavirus recession
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Senate Republicans have failed struggling families: It is cruel, and bad economics, to withhold stimulus aid
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EPI comments on independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act
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With millions of people out of work, the Senate’s inaction is not only cruel, it’s bad economics
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30 weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic and workers desperately need stimulus
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1.3 million people filed initial unemployment insurance claims last week: It is terrible economics to pause stimulus talks
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With millions of workers receiving unemployment benefits and no end in sight for the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress must act
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At least 33 million workers are being hurt by the coronavirus recession
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Many workers have exhausted their state’s regular unemployment benefits: The CARES Act provided important UI benefits and Congress must act to extend them
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Half a year into the pandemic and millions of people are unemployed: Congress must provide relief
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UI claims rising as jobs remain scarce: Senate Republicans must stop blocking the restoration of UI benefits
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News from EPI › EPI applauds judge’s decision on joint-employer rule: Trump’s rule would have cost workers more than $1 billion annually
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Total initial UI claims have risen in each of the last four weeks: Congress must act
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UI claims remain historically high and the president’s executive memorandum is doing more harm than good: Congress must reinstate the extra $600
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UI claims remain historically high and the president’s sham executive memorandum is doing next to nothing: Congress must reinstate the $600
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EPI comment on DOL Bad Advice Rule
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Unemployment insurance claims remain historically high: Congress must reinstate the extra $600 immediately
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UI claims and GDP growth are historically bad: Now is not the time to cut benefits that are supporting jobs
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Why we still need the $600 unemployment benefit
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Joblessness remains at historic levels and there is no evidence UI is disincentivizing work: Congress must extend the extra $600 in UI benefits
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Joblessness remains at historic levels: The extra $600 in UI benefits expires next week—Congress must extend it
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Almost four months in, joblessness remains at historic levels: Congress must extend the extra $600 in UI benefits, which expires in a little more than two weeks
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News from EPI › Two months of gains, but a huge jobs deficit remains, and deepening pain is on the horizon: Congress needs to act
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Nearly 11% of the workforce is out of work with no reasonable chance of getting called back to a prior job