“A ton of resources are wasted during a really crucial time … just having to go through this ad hoc stimulus and relief and recovery, and it just doesn’t have to be like that,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Labor Department. “We can automate things to make it so Congress could step in if they ever needed to do more relief, but it would mean that the basic structure of relief and recovery would be there already.”
…
“Waiting until the very eleventh hour to extend the pandemic unemployment insurance programs, there have been millions of people who saw the lapses in benefits,” Shierholz said. “To lawmakers who have a cushion in their bank accounts and if they don’t get paid for a couple of weeks they’re fine, that is not the case for most people.”
VOX
February 23, 2021
Black workers are more likely than others to be employed in frontline essential jobs, according to a June 2020 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Black Americans make up more than a quarter of public transit workers, nearly 20 percent of child care and social service workers, and 18 percent of trucking, warehouse and postal service workers.
PBS Newshour
February 23, 2021
Over the past five years, average annual wages increased by 4.8%, after adjusting for inflation. However, much of the increase in average wages can be attributed to growing wages among the highest earners. According to an analysis of Current Population Survey data by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), real median hourly wages grew by 15% from 1979 to 2019. In comparison, workers in the 95th percentile saw their wages grow by 63%, while workers in the 10th percentile only experienced wage growth of about 3%.
Seattle Pi
February 23, 2021
Broadly, the demographics of the Labor Movement are changing. Per the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the working class — defined as working people without degrees — makes up 66 percent of the total workforce. EPI estimates that the working class will be majority-minority by 2032 –– 11 years before the total population of the U.S. becomes so. If we look at just members of the working class aged 25-34, this group of workers will be majority-minority in 2021.
St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune
February 23, 2021
More than half of states — 29 — have a minimum wage higher than $7.25 and 45 cities have a minimum wage higher than their state, according to the
Economic Policy Institute. A large portion of the states with a minimum wage higher than $7.25 raise it automatically with inflation.
The
wage went up in 20 states January 1. California has the highest statewide minimum wage at $14 per hour for companies that employ 26 or more people — but San Francisco and other cities in the state have higher wages, as do New York, Seattle and others.
…For an extremely in-depth look at the benefits of raising the minimum wage, here’s a report by the Economic Policy Institute, which lobbies for a wage increase.
CNN
February 23, 2021
In the past 25 years, the minimum wage has only increased $2.50—from $4.75 an hour to $7.25 an hour—and the last increase was in 2009. Furthermore, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Black employees make up 31% of the workforce that would most benefit from an increased minimum wage.
CNBC
February 23, 2021
That’s because 60% of the workforce in this country lives in states with minimum wages below $15 an hour. Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said the bump up to $15 would make a big difference for people of color.
“Almost a third of Black workers would see a raise with this minimum wage increase. For Hispanic workers, it’s almost as high — it’s 26%,” she said.
And Shierholz said more than half of the people who’d get a raise with a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage would be women, many supporting families.
NPR Marketplace
February 23, 2021
24/7 Wall St. reviewed March 2018 cost of living estimates, adjusted for inflation, from financial think tank the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator.
24/7 Wall St.
February 23, 2021
But Celine McNicholas, director of government affairs and labor counsel at the Economic Policy Institute…[paywall].
Law360
February 23, 2021
In 2019, the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor detected millions in wage theft between fiscal years 2000 and 2019. Farm labor contractors were almost one in four of the agricultural violations found in a 14-year span, according to an analysis of the federal data from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research think tank.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
February 23, 2021
The wage increase could directly affect as many as 1,050,000 Michigan workers, according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Michigan Radio
February 23, 2021
Data from the Economic Policy Institute indicates that a quarter of a million West Virginians, about 14% of the population in the state, would directly benefit from a $15 minimum wage.
Those impacted workers would take home, on average, nearly $4,000 extra dollars each year, the economic policy institute estimated. The total annual wage increase for all affected West Virginia workers would be $987 million annually.
Business Insider
February 23, 2021
On Trump’s pro-growth economy policies:
“The Trump administration has taken credit for reshoring manufacturing jobs, but the data shows that isn’t true. Nearly 1,800 factories have disappeared under Trump between 2016 and 2018.”
“The U.S. real trade deficit has increased in every year since 2016, reducing GDP growth by roughly 0.25% annually over the past three years. The Trump administration’s overall weak trade agenda, COVID-19 and the administration’s mismanagement of the crisis has wiped out much of the last decade’s job gains in U.S. manufacturing.”
The Virginia Gazette
February 23, 2021
- Thomas L. Hungerford and Rebecca Thiess, “The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit” (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2013), available at https://www.epi.org/publication/ib370-earned-income-tax-credit-and-the-child-tax-credit-history-purpose-goals-and-effectiveness/.
Center for American Progress
February 23, 2021
Other recent studies have found a $15 minimum wage would result in little to no job loss while boosting payroll tax revenue.
“The bottom line is that the CBO finds that the benefit to low-wage workers of raising the minimum wage far outweighs the cost,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, on a Monday call with reporters.
CNBC
February 23, 2021
“A ton of resources are wasted during a really crucial time … just having to go through this ad hoc stimulus and relief and recovery, and it just doesn’t have to be like that,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Labor Department. “We can automate things to make it so Congress could step in if they ever needed to do more relief, but it would mean that the basic structure of relief and recovery would be there already.”
…
“Waiting until the very eleventh hour to extend the pandemic unemployment insurance programs, there have been millions of people who saw the lapses in benefits,” Shierholz said. “To lawmakers who have a cushion in their bank accounts and if they don’t get paid for a couple of weeks they’re fine, that is not the case for most people.”
VOX
February 23, 2021
Black workers are more likely than others to be employed in frontline essential jobs, according to a June 2020 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Black Americans make up more than a quarter of public transit workers, nearly 20 percent of child care and social service workers, and 18 percent of trucking, warehouse and postal service workers.
PBS Newshour
February 23, 2021
But Celine McNicholas, director of government affairs and labor counsel at the Economic Policy Institute…[paywall].
Law360
February 23, 2021
24/7 Wall St. reviewed March 2018 cost of living estimates, adjusted for inflation, from financial think tank the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator.
24/7 Wall St.
February 23, 2021
In 2019, the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor detected millions in wage theft between fiscal years 2000 and 2019. Farm labor contractors were almost one in four of the agricultural violations found in a 14-year span, according to an analysis of the federal data from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research think tank.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
February 23, 2021
The wage increase could directly affect as many as 1,050,000 Michigan workers, according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Michigan Radio
February 23, 2021
Data from the Economic Policy Institute indicates that a quarter of a million West Virginians, about 14% of the population in the state, would directly benefit from a $15 minimum wage.
Those impacted workers would take home, on average, nearly $4,000 extra dollars each year, the economic policy institute estimated. The total annual wage increase for all affected West Virginia workers would be $987 million annually.
Business Insider
February 23, 2021
On Trump’s pro-growth economy policies:
“The Trump administration has taken credit for reshoring manufacturing jobs, but the data shows that isn’t true. Nearly 1,800 factories have disappeared under Trump between 2016 and 2018.”
“The U.S. real trade deficit has increased in every year since 2016, reducing GDP growth by roughly 0.25% annually over the past three years. The Trump administration’s overall weak trade agenda, COVID-19 and the administration’s mismanagement of the crisis has wiped out much of the last decade’s job gains in U.S. manufacturing.”
The Virginia Gazette
February 23, 2021
- Thomas L. Hungerford and Rebecca Thiess, “The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit” (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2013), available at https://www.epi.org/publication/ib370-earned-income-tax-credit-and-the-child-tax-credit-history-purpose-goals-and-effectiveness/.
Center for American Progress
February 23, 2021
Other recent studies have found a $15 minimum wage would result in little to no job loss while boosting payroll tax revenue.
“The bottom line is that the CBO finds that the benefit to low-wage workers of raising the minimum wage far outweighs the cost,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, on a Monday call with reporters.
CNBC
February 23, 2021
“A ton of resources are wasted during a really crucial time … just having to go through this ad hoc stimulus and relief and recovery, and it just doesn’t have to be like that,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Labor Department. “We can automate things to make it so Congress could step in if they ever needed to do more relief, but it would mean that the basic structure of relief and recovery would be there already.”
…
“Waiting until the very eleventh hour to extend the pandemic unemployment insurance programs, there have been millions of people who saw the lapses in benefits,” Shierholz said. “To lawmakers who have a cushion in their bank accounts and if they don’t get paid for a couple of weeks they’re fine, that is not the case for most people.”
VOX
February 23, 2021
Black workers are more likely than others to be employed in frontline essential jobs, according to a June 2020 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Black Americans make up more than a quarter of public transit workers, nearly 20 percent of child care and social service workers, and 18 percent of trucking, warehouse and postal service workers.
PBS Newshour
February 23, 2021
Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), said that $15 in 2025 would be an “appropriate” level since it would put a dent in “poverty wages.”
“There is a kind of a large hole that we’ve dug ourselves in having low minimum wages relative to what workers need,” he told Insider. “And so then I think it does make sense to have some kind of gradual set of increases, because you do want to give time for some businesses to accommodate the higher wage schedule.”
Business Insider
February 22, 2021
According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, the wage increase would affect nearly one-third of workers in Hinson’s district. She and other members of the House Budget Committee will review the proposal during a hearing on Monday
Iowa Public Radio
February 22, 2021