The cost of raising a child in the U.S. varies dramatically according to where you live. Using data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), we compared the average cost of child care for a 4-year-old across states.
Unsurprisingly, child care costs are most expensive in states where the cost of living is higher. Massachusetts and Connecticut rank as the states with the highest child care costs, while expenses are more affordable in the Southern states of Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.
MarketWatch
August 17, 2023
These credentials may be needed as a temporary fix because according to the Economic Policy Institute, by 2024, new teachers will only fulfill one third of the national demand for teachers.
WCTI News 12
August 17, 2023
The survey of gig workers from the Economic Policy Institute found that about 14% of gig workers made less than the federal minimum wage, and 29% earned less than their state’s minimum wage. The survey was conducted in 2020, a banner year for gig workers due to demand for delivery early in the pandemic.
Business Insider
August 17, 2023
In California, workers lose roughly $2 billion annually from employers who aren’t paying minimum wage, and that’s just one form of wage theft, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Many of those victimized, often lower-income immigrants and women, will never file an official complaint with the state agency tasked with investigating wage theft because they fear retaliation.
KQED
August 17, 2023
According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, nearly 90 percent of companies conduct captive audience meetings when confronted with a unionization campaign — and the data shows there’s a direct correlation between the meetings and whether the union prevails in their election.
Truthout
August 17, 2023
A recent analysis from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute shows that teachers make less than other college graduates in weekly pay and total salary — and this gap is growing. Until we as a nation get serious about paying teachers as the essential workers they are, it will remain a struggle to recruit and retain high-quality educators.
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
August 17, 2023
The problems driving teachers out of the classrooms, however, aren’t all about pay and they’re not exclusive to Virginia. A study published in December by the Economic Policy Institute found that salary was tied for fourth among reasons teachers bailed. The top reason given (by 43%) of the 958 departing K-12 public school teachers EPI surveyed: “The stress and disappointments of teaching weren’t worth it.” Twenty-four percent cited insufficient pay, just behind “I did not get enough support from my school district” (29%).
Virginia Mercury
August 17, 2023
Josh Bivens, research director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said his “gut” tells him Biden may eventually benefit from the economy.
He predicted that with 3 to 4 percent inflation or lower and consistent low unemployment for another year could lead to higher ratings for Biden. Unemployment currently sits at just 3.6 percent.
“The ratchet-up of inflation in 2021 and early 2022 very much unsettled people, and they are only now really recognizing that the ratchet has started to reverse pretty decisively,” Bivens said.
The Hill
August 17, 2023
Josh Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute said that after lots of churn in the pandemic, company workforces are stabilizing.
“It takes time to take all those new workers you’ve hired and get them working in a way that really adds to the productivity of a firm,” he said.
Also, with workers hard to find, companies are investing in labor-saving technology, said Paul Ashworth — like AI and machine-learning.
“It’s possible that we’re seeing the beginnings of a new productivity boom like we saw in the 1990s and early 2000s, when desktop computers and the internet were integrated into the workplace,” he said.
Marketplace
August 17, 2023
In a wide-ranging conversation about the strikes and the recent spotlight on C-suite pay in Hollywood, Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and co-founder of Inequality Media and the Economic Policy Institute, explained how the rise of monopolies and relative disappearance of unions has created market conditions primed to enhance economic disparity.
The Hollywood Reporter
August 17, 2023
Margaret Poydock, senior policy analyst for the Economic Policy Institute, said current labor law structure does not ensure a quick resolution.
“Our labor law currently makes it very hard, one for workers to form a union,” Poydock pointed out. “Then they have to face a lot of opposition from their employer when they form a union. If they get to the point where they win their union election it could take years to get that first contract. “
Public News Service
August 17, 2023
In recent years, a growing number of states throughout the nation have quietly implemented laws allowing underaged workers to serve alcoholic beverages in bars and restaurants. This controversial trend has caught the attention of the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, which has examined the implications of such legislative changes. The institute’s recent report sheds light on the dangers faced by younger workers, the motivations behind such policies, and potential solutions to mitigate the risks.
Legal Reader
August 17, 2023
It’s not surprising that there’s unrest in the workplace.
Wages haven’t kept up with the times — according to the Economic Policy Institute, productivity has grown nearly four times as much as the rate of pay from 1979 through 2021.
New York Post
August 17, 2023
Unemployment has dropped from 4.4 percent in June 2017 to 3.5 percent today, and—even with 3.2 percent inflation compared to 1.6 percent inflation back in June 2017—the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute was able to report in March that low-wage workers experienced “historically fast real wage growth.” The picture was less favorable for the middle class: For two years real average hourly earnings lagged inflation.
The New Republic
August 17, 2023
What’s more, since 1979, wages for the bottom 90% of earners had grown just 15%, compared with 138% for the top 1%, according to a 2015 Economic Policy Institute report. But there’s now a renewed focus on wage-earner anxiety amid higher inflation and rising interest rates.
CNBC
August 17, 2023
The Arkansas law is part of a wave of new legislation that seeks to loosen regulations for employing children. Some 14 states have introduced similar laws, according to tracking by the Economic Policy Institute.
HR Brew
August 17, 2023
According to a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute, in some states, teachers make almost 33% less than others with equivalent degrees.
Reader's Digest
August 17, 2023
In September 2021, Washington D.C.-based nonprofit think tank the Economic Policy Institute issued a report entitled “Ensuring the high road in cannabis” that argued for strong unionization within the rapidly expanding legal-use industry.
NUG Magazine
August 15, 2023
These credentials may be needed as a temporary fix because according to the Economic Policy Institute, by 2024, new teachers will only fulfill one third of the national demand for teachers.
WCTI News 12
August 15, 2023
The cost of raising a child in the U.S. varies dramatically according to where you live. Using data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), we compared the average cost of child care for a 4-year-old across states.
Unsurprisingly, child care costs are most expensive in states where the cost of living is higher. Massachusetts and Connecticut rank as the states with the highest child care costs, while expenses are more affordable in the Southern states of Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.
MarketWatch
August 15, 2023
In California, workers lose roughly $2 billion annually from employers who aren’t paying minimum wage, and that’s just one form of wage theft, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Many of those victimized, often lower-income immigrants and women, will never file an official complaint with the state agency tasked with investigating wage theft because they fear retaliation.
KQED
August 15, 2023
Updated story from October 2022.
Inflation is a “generalized rise in prices,” said Josh Bivens, the director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington D.C. For example, goods like gas, rent or food can be impacted by inflation.
“Inflation, though, really is meant to only refer to all goods and services, together, rising in price by some common amount,” he explained.
USA Today
August 10, 2023
The case comes as child labor protections are being rolled back in nearly a dozen states around the country, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. At the same time, child labor violations are increasing, the report found, citing Department of Labor data.
McClatchy
August 10, 2023
Latine workers form the backbone of the American agricultural industry. Without them, we could not eat. Without them, our larger food systems would crumble.
But farmworkers earn “far less than even some of the lowest-paid workers in the U.S. labor force,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Public News Service
August 10, 2023
Progressive think tanks have argued that such changes will make it easier for workers to receive higher pay and better benefits. In its comment on the proposed rule in May 2022, the Economic Policy Institute said research has established that prevailing wage laws increase worker pay, help more workers get pension plans, and improve workers’ health care coverage as well as make the construction industry more equitable for women and workers of color.
States Newsroom
August 10, 2023
Since 2014, 30 states have effectively raised their minimum-wage law, says the Economic Policy Institute.
Christian Science Monitor
August 10, 2023
Arkansas isn’t the only state trying to chip away at child labor protections. In the past few years, Iowa, New Hampshire and New Jersey have enacted laws that roll back previous protections for child workers like extending allowable work hours and loosening restrictions on hazardous work, and several more states have introduced similar bills, according to analysis from the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute. Some of these laws, like Iowa’s, which allows 14- and 15-year-olds to work up to six hours a day during the school year, conflict with federal labor law.
According to Nina Mast, a state economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, the ultimate goal of the proponents of these state laws is to weaken federal child labor law.
New York Times
August 10, 2023
At least 14 states have introduced or enacted laws within the past two years that relaxed child labor restrictions, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
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But removing those restrictions is not the only way to address labor shortages or encourage youth employment, said Nina Mast, an economic analyst with EPI’s Economic Analysis and Research Network. Employers, Mast continued, could explore training pathways for minors such as pre-apprenticeship training.
“If employers feel that their only strategy to [combat labor shortages] is to open those jobs to youth who have historically been barred from that work, I would say that that is the wrong strategy,” Mast said.
HR Dive
August 10, 2023