Media clips

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• The GOP’s Brand Is Chaos

  All in all, the true cost of wage theft amounts to something substantially north of chump change: A 2014 study from the Economic Policy Institute “a nationwide epidemic that costs American workers as much as $50 billion a year.”*

  New Republic November 3, 2023
• Thank You, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for Flagging Biden Labor Policies You Hate

  I, too, wish the EPI weren’t so very dominant on research related to workers. There ought to be more excellent Washington-based nonprofits producing a comparable quantity of first-rate studies on such matters. Given labor issues’ centrality to the Democratic Party agenda (or anyway what’s supposed to be the Democratic Party agenda), it’s kind of a scandal that there aren’t. 

  New Republic November 3, 2023
• It’s time for an expansive new labor movement

  This gap has ballooned in recent years. A report from the Economic Policy Institute found that, in 2021, CEOs at top companies earned 399..

  Boston Globe November 3, 2023
• Labor Board’s Joint Employer Rule Faces Court, Congress Hurdles

  Paywall. 

  Bloomberg Law November 3, 2023
• Publix sued over alleged unpaid overtime, accused of off-the-clock work violations

  Below is a statement from Morgan & Morgan attorney Ryan Morgan and Shavitz Law Group attorney Gregg Shavitz:

  Every year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, American workers lose as much as $50 billion per year to wage theft.

  WZTV November 3, 2023
• Proposed rollback of child labor law in FL gets pushback; critics say kids would be exploited

  In fact, Florida is the 13th state this year to introduce legislation that would roll back labor laws intended to protect minors, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

  The organization says that the bill “proposes rolling back long-standing state standards adopted more than a century ago in response to widespread exploitation of children” and contends it will “harm Florida’s poorest youth and their families.”

  Florida Phoenix November 3, 2023
• Publix accused of employee wage theft in federal class-action lawsuit. What to know

  Every year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, American workers lose as much as $50 billion per year to wage theft. Our clients have experienced something many workers face as we all become reachable on our phones at any time of day or night — that companies expect employees to be in constant communication but fail to track this time worked. It’s unacceptable to force hourly workers to work outside of their shifts and to not pay workers for their time.

  Miami Herald November 3, 2023
• It looks like striking auto workers forced Ford’s bosses into a record 25% pay increase

  Paywall. 

  Business Insider November 3, 2023
• Morris Pearl Says Americans Shouldn’t Be Worried About the National Debt. Here’s Why.

  The lack of complaining from the GOP in 2017 when Trump passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) serves as a key example. This bill, according to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, provided significant benefits to wealthy Americans and corporations. However, it did little to help working families.

  Business Insider November 3, 2023
• The Midwest is getting left behind as the rest of America sees big raises

  Compared to the rest of the US, the Midwest is lagging in terms of real median wage growth, rising just 0.4% — or eight cents — from 2019 to 2022, new research from the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute shows. This is in contrast to the nation’s 3.1% median wage growth during the same period.

  Workers in the Northeast saw a median wage growth increase of 5.7% during the three-year period, while the West rose 4.7%. The South was a bit above the Midwest at 0.9%.

  …

  Though federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and the CARES Act helped many Midwesterners stay afloat, the Midwest “has endured years of slow wage growth, slow job growth, public-sector employment shortfalls, and declines in unionization,” the report notes.

  “That decline was ushered in by a period of austerity — disinvestment in the public sector, as well as in public-sector employment — trade policies that incentivized offshoring, and a host of anti-worker policies that have limited the collective bargaining power of workers and the ability of unions to secure higher wages for their members, and in turn, all workers in the region,” Nina Mast, one of the study’s coauthors, told Insider.

  Business Insider November 3, 2023
• Residents of Midwest, Mountain West see biggest pay bumps

  State-by-state income rises across the Midwest were “all over the map,” from North Dakota’s double-digit percentage increase to just 2% for Wisconsin and 3% for Kansas and Michigan, said Nina Mast, who studied the region’s wage trends in the pandemic in an October study for the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.

  The region as a whole suffered lower wage growth compared with other regions in the pandemic through 2022, threatening to increase inequality and hurt middle-class workers, who increasingly lack union representation, Mast said.

  States Newsroom November 3, 2023
• Labor pains in the workforce and in the home

  Finally, electrician Amanda Cooling talks about the hurdles for women in male-dominated fields, and Jennifer Sherer of The Economic Policy Institute explains why women’s representation in the trades industry hasn’t budged from 3%.

  Iowa Public Radio November 3, 2023
• Ohio’s typical worker has dealt with shrinking wages since 2019, according to report

  Policy Matters Ohio Economist Michael Shields referenced a new analysis of federal data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington D.C.-based think tank, which indicated median Ohio wages went down from $22.60 in 2020 to $21.51 in 2022.

  Fox 5 Cleveland November 3, 2023
• SME launches training and certification for EV manufacturing and technicians

  Various projections show EV could make up as much as 50% of auto sales by 2030, which, according to the Economic Policy Institute, could potentially create more than 150,000 new jobs related to the production and maintenance of electric cars. EV growth would also spur job creation across the broader electrification ecosystem.

  Auto Remarketing November 3, 2023
• Striketober, Again!

  In addition to CEO pay rising by over 1,000 percent since 1978, the Economic Policy Institute reported that CEOs were paid 399 times as much as the average worker in 2021.

  Nonprofit Quarterly November 3, 2023
• Women walk out in Iceland to strike against the gender pay gap. There’s a lesson for the US

  There are many ways to intervene in gender inequality in the U.S., from widening access to health care to promoting participation in male-dominated fields, Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute told USA TODAY, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all all solution when gendered pay difference maps across so many different systems, especially race.

  “I think there’s no silver bullet in the United States to close the gender pay gap,” Gould said. “We have a lot more economic inequality in general.”

  USA Today November 3, 2023
• UAW’s record deal could boost others’ wages as labor notches another victory

  Organization has been difficult in recent years. About 11.3% of workers were represented by unions last year compared with 23.6% in 1982, according to data analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute.

  Reuters November 3, 2023
• From Arkansas to New Hampshire, states are rolling back child labor laws

  “We’re seeing a coordinated multi-industry push to roll back labor standards, and what that’s really reflecting is industry’s desire to maintain and expand their access to pools of low wage labor,” said Jennifer Sherer, director of the State Worker Power Initiative at the Economic Policy Institute. “And in this case doing that in a really disturbing way that can expose children to hazardous conditions or long, excessive hours that we know based on research, can put kids in a high risk category for their grades slipping.”

  WGBH November 3, 2023
• NLRB releases joint employer rule in political blow to restaurant franchising

  Margaret Poydock, a senior analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive economic think tank, applauded the rule.

  “This standard reflects the [NLRA’s] purpose of promoting collective bargaining by adopting a joint-employer standard that enables workers to hold all firms that set their terms and conditions of employment accountable at the bargaining table,” Poydock wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive.

  Restaurant Dive November 3, 2023
• Black Homeownership Declines in D.C. Due to High Student Debt, Says New Report

  The report, authored by the Jain Family Institute’s Data Science Research Associate Eduard Nilaj and Economic Policy Institute economist Kyle K. Moore, highlights the following key findings:

  • Young borrowers in D.C. bear the highest student loan debts in the United States, leading to high debt-to-income ratios that hinder loan repayment, with racial disparities amplifying these financial challenges, particularly in Black-majority areas.
  The Washington Informer November 3, 2023
• Bill in Congress would end tax breaks for anti-union campaigns

  Companies spend more than $430 million each year on union avoidance consultants, according to an estimate from the Economic Policy Institute.

  Public News Service November 3, 2023
• Wisconsin grad students are workers

  According to a 2020 Economic Policy Institute report, when workers cannot exercise their right to join and form unions, “economic inequality grows and wages stagnate.” The NLRB decision was reversed in 2016, leading to a swell of graduate worker union filings.

  Capitol Times November 3, 2023
• WA minimum wage to increase, but workers still feel financial strain

  David Cooper, senior analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, said the state has been a leader for decades in increasing its minimum wage.

  However, Cooper said families continue to struggle with necessities such as housing and the high cost of child care.

  “Child care is a public good,” said Cooper. “It’s something that the market is never going to provide enough of. So that’s one thing that is really squeezing people in a lot of places.”

  Public News Service November 3, 2023
• Workers Are Striking In Numbers Not Seen In Years

  Margaret Poydock, a senior policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute think tank, said striking workers are buoyed right now by a persistently tight labor market that gives them more leverage at the bargaining table. She also said public support for unions and strikers is giving workers more confidence to walk out and demand more.

  “It’s easier for workers to go on strike when there’s low unemployment,” Poydock said. “And [right now] there’s solidarity from the public.”

  Huffpost November 3, 2023
• Will the UAW strike turn the Rust Belt green?

  Since the crash, average hourly wages for workers in vehicle manufacturing, adjusted for inflation, have fallen by nearly twenty per cent, according to a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute. The automakers, meanwhile, have seen enormous financial success. By 2013, the Treasury Department had sold its last stakes in Chrysler and G.M. and lifted restrictions on executive compensation. In the past decade, profits at the Big Three have almost doubled. The companies have spent billions on stock buybacks, and C.E.O. pay has gone up by forty per cent; Mary Barra, the C.E.O. of G.M., earned twenty-nine million dollars last year.

  The New Yorker November 3, 2023
• Elon Musk has a blunt take on capitalism

  In 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times more than the typical worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In 1965, CEOs were paid 21 times more than the typical worker. 

  TheStreet November 3, 2023
• The ultimate price

  According to research by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, which is supposed to investigate reports of abuse in H-2A, has seen little increase in funding since 2006. In that time the number of H-2A workers has increased more than 500%. 

  As a result, the odds that an H-2A farm will be inspected are less than 1%, which can lead to a low level of compliance with labor laws, said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute and author of the report. “Farms can pretty much do whatever they want and there’s a very low likelihood they’ll ever be investigated,” he said in an interview.

  Investigate Midwest November 3, 2023
• The UAW wanted to win back what it lost. Here’s how the Ford deal measures up

  Across industries, CEO compensation fell 14.8% year-over-year in 2022, though CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker in contrast to 1965 when they were paid 21 times as much, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

  Detroit News November 3, 2023
• Rishi Sunak’s billionaire father-in-law sparks backlash by suggesting young people should work 70-hour weeks

  Economic Policy Institute, in a report published last year in October, said that the “CEO pay has skyrocketed 1,460 per cent since 1978” and that “CEOs were paid 399 times as much as a typical worker in 2021”.

  The Independent November 3, 2023
• Ginnie Graham: Workers are having a moment of empowerment

  Between 1978-2022, top CEO compensation jumped 1,209.2% compared with a 15.3% increase in a typical worker’s pay, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Last year, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker. By contrast, in 1965, CEOs earned 21 times as much as a typical worker.

  Tulsa World November 3, 2023