On Wednesday, June 4th at 9:30 a.m., the Economic Policy Institute will launch Raising America’s Pay, a new initiative focused on policy solutions to jumpstart the stagnant wages of American workers. The launch event will feature panel discussions on the economics of wage growth and on-the-ground efforts to raise wages. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez will deliver the keynote address.
Income inequality has taken center stage among economists, policymakers, the media, and ordinary Americans, but the discussion too frequently sidesteps the need to foster wage growth for the vast majority of Americans who rely on their paychecks to make ends meet. Raising wages is the central economic challenge of our time—essential to ending inequality, boosting living standards for the broad middle-class, reducing poverty, and sustaining economic growth.
A three-year project, Raising America’s Pay will draw on EPI research and work by outside experts to highlight our failure to provide broad-based wage growth, explain the role of labor market policies and practices in suppressing pay, and identify policies to generate substantial broad-based wage growth.
What: Launch of Raising America’s Pay, an initiative of the Economic Policy Institute
Who: Panel discussion on the economics of raising wages, with EPI President Lawrence Mishel and EPI economists Josh Bivens, Elise Gould, and Valerie Wilson, moderated by Harold Meyerson
Remarks by Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen
Keynote address by Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez
Panel discussion on organizing efforts to raise wages, with Center for Community Change Managing Director Mary Lassen and Carrie Gleason of the Center for Popular Democracy, and Mikey Franklin of the Fair Pay Campaign, moderated by the Washington Post’s Jim Tankersley
When: Wednesday, June 4th at 9:30 a.m.
Where: 1333 H St, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC, 20005
For more information or to RSVP email news@epi.org.
Join in on Twitter @EconomicPolicy #RaisePay