Research from the Economic Policy Institute found that wages in right-to-work states were 3.1% lower than others after accounting for cost of living differences.
Axios
March 17, 2023
Economic Policy Institute: Two years later, American Rescue Plan funds are still a transformative resource: State and local governments—particularly in the South—should invest unspent funds in workers, families, and communities
“During ARPA’s second year, many governments used SLFRF dollars to tackle deep inequities in their communities, not just to deal with the immediate challenges of the pandemic but to make transformative investments whose benefits will last long into the future.
“The opportunity to make transformative investments remains, and policymakers should seize the moment to rebuild the public sector and improve the lives of working families.”
U.S. Department of the Treasury
March 17, 2023
It is highly unusual for a state to repeal such a law once it’s in effect. In fact, the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, says Michigan would be the first state to do so in 60 years if Whitmer signs the legislation. (In 2018, Missouri voters passed a referendum blocking a right-to-work law that had recently been passed by GOP lawmakers.)
Huffpost
March 17, 2023
Testifying supporters included the Michigan AFL-CIO, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a University of Arkansas professor, a union steward for UFCW and numerous other union representatives.
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce testified in opposition to the bills.
Michigan Advance
March 17, 2023
Jennifer Sherer, senior state policy coordinator at the research group Economic Policy Institute, told the Labor Committee that Right-to-Work is an “attack” on workers rights that “especially benefited the rich.”
“An overwhelming body of research shows that states with anti-union laws restricting workers’ collective bargaining rights end up with lower wages, worse benefits, and higher workplace fatality rates,” she said in a later statement.
Bridge Michigan
March 17, 2023
“While the private sector experienced a strong bounce-back” from the crash “due to large policy interventions, the public sector—particularly state and local government jobs—continues to fall behind,” Economic Policy Institute Senior Analyst Elise Gould tweeted. “Private-sector employment is 2.6% above pre-pandemic levels while state and local is down 2%.”
People’s World
March 17, 2023
Although more jobs were unionized, the share of workers represented by a union declined from 11.6 percent to 11.3 percent because nonunion jobs were added at a faster rate, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Labor Tribune
March 17, 2023
The reasons Black Americans have higher jobless rates than whites fall into several categories. The Economic Policy Institute reports that among the primary reasons are racism and single-adult households where one person tries to care for children and hold a full-time job simultaneously.
24/7 Wall Street
March 17, 2023
Growth in the number of people looking for work means the unemployment rate is rising for the right reasons, according to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Marketplace
March 17, 2023
What’s happening now is a pushback from conservative organizations and red-state legislatures. “[A]ctivists have begun targeting local governments to create big government policy that could not survive at the state capitol,” said a 2015 op-ed in RedState, arguing states should pass preemption laws to protect businesses from excessive regulation in these cities. And by that point, states were already doing just that. A 2020 Economic Policy Institute analysis found the use of preemption was more prevalent in southern states.
FiveThirtyEight
March 17, 2023
These politicians are focused on protecting their wealthy donors, who pay less into Social Security than ever. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently found that as inequality increases, a record share of all earnings are above the $160,200 cap on Social Security contributions.
Fayette Tribune
March 17, 2023
The increase in income inequality is the main reason for the erosion in the share of income subject to payroll taxes, the Economic Policy Institute pointed out in a blog post in January. The cap rises at the same rate as the national average wage index, but people at the top have seen earnings grow faster than the national average and thus have captured a bigger share of total earnings. Raising the cap so that 90 percent of earnings were once again subject to payroll taxes would be in line with the intention of the 1977 reform. On the other hand, high earners get less out of Social Security than they pay into it. Such a change would make the deal for them even worse.
New York Times
March 17, 2023
Arora now hopes the project can help address widespread child care needs. In a recent West Michigan Works! survey of more than 1,400 people, more than three-quarters of respondents indicated that accessible and affordable child care is a barrier to employment. The average cost of infant care in Michigan is $10,861, or $905 a month, according to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute.
MiBiz: West Michigan Business News
March 17, 2023
Wages are also on the lower side versus competitors. According to a 2021 survey done by the nonprofit think tank, Economic Policy Institute, 92% of Dollar General workers earn less than $15 an hour. For comparison, 51% of workers earn below $15 at Walmart, 3% at Target, and 48% at Kroger. This data was based on a survey of 20,933 hourly service-sector workers.
Business Insider
March 17, 2023
And in 2022, the number of workers involved in major strikes surged to 120,600 over the prior year, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Economic Policy Institute. Still, it’s a significant decline from pre-pandemic levels in 2018 and 2019, EPI said.
USA Today
March 17, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, care for one child in Pennsylvania nears $12,000 per year — a cost so prohibitive that nearly 1.6 million parents have left the workforce entirely. During his budget address last week, Mr. Shapiro said the state’s economy loses $3.5 billion each year because of lacking child care options.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
March 17, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute notes that while “[n]early half of all nonunion workers say they want a union in their workplace… only 12% of all workers are actually represented by a union.” The PRO Act closes loopholes in current labor law and smooths the unionization process, as can be seen here.
Uprise Rhode Island
March 17, 2023
The day that the FTC announced the rule, Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, celebrated on Twitter. The EPI analyzes economic issues and workplace conditions from the perspective of workers.
KPVI
March 17, 2023
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, agreed with the sentiment, adding in a statement, “This bill would help protect workers against the harmful effects of overwork by recognizing the need to redefine standards around the work week.”
Deseret News
March 17, 2023
And in a forthcoming report from the Economic Policy Institute, real wage growth, which is adjusted for inflation, increased during the pandemic. “Between 2019 and 2022, hourly wage growth was strongest at the bottom of the wage distribution. The 10th percentile real hourly wage (adjusted for inflation) grew 9.0% over the three-year period. Wage growth was about one-third as fast for middle-wage workers,” it read.
Bucks County Courier Times
March 17, 2023
This problem is not new. According to a 2008 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), banks gave 52.9% of subprime mortgages to Black customers while only 26.1% went to white customers. (And studies have shown that creditworthiness can’t account for these disparities, per the EPI.) In 2020, the New York Times reported instances of racial profiling when Black customers perform mundane bank transactions.
Morning Brew
March 17, 2023
Valerie Wilson, director at the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy, urged against putting too much stock into one month’s report, noting that the rising labor force participation rate shows more confidence in the labor market.
CNBC
March 17, 2023
It’s no secret that chief execs, especially those that helm major companies, make a lot of money, with the average CEO — who might rake in a solid $16-or-so million a year — earning nearly 400 times what the average employee makes, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Futurism
March 17, 2023
Another concerning gap in teacher wages is the overall disparity between educators and similarly educated individuals in different professions. This finding has been described by the Economic Policy Institute as the “teacher pay penalty,” where teachers on average earned 76.5 cents on the dollar in 2021 from what similar college-educated professionals were paid.
K-12 Dive
March 17, 2023
Low salaries and high stress are two of the main contributors to a nationwide teacher shortage that has developed and worsened since around the time of the Great Recession, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Now, some members of Congress are hoping to address the pay problem.
CNBC
March 17, 2023
While wealth may have risen for many Americans, the same can’t be said of their wages. Economists at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, analyzed data from the Social Security Administration and found that on average workers in the bottom 90% of wage earners (those who made less than $112,000 per year) saw no increase in their wages from 2019 to 2021 once historic levels of inflation were taken into account. These workers actually saw a decline in their real earnings of 0.2%.
PBS
March 17, 2023
The following is from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI):
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 16, 2023) — The Michigan state legislature is poised to make history this week by repealing an anti-union “right-to-work” (RTW) statute enacted in 2012. This repeal is an important step toward empowering workers to address historic levels of income inequality and unequal power in our economy, and would mark the first time a state has repealed a RTW law in nearly 60 years.
The Stand
March 17, 2023
New analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank, shows the devastating effect Michigan’s 2012 “right to work” law has had on unionization, wages, and the middle class. “An overwhelming body of research shows that states with anti-union laws restricting workers’ collective bargaining rights end up with lower wages, worse benefits, and higher workplace fatality rates,” said Jennifer SHERER, Senior State Policy Coordinator at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), who testified in support of the Restoring Workers’ Rights package before the Senate Labor Committee this morning. “Michigan legislators are right to prioritize restoring workers’ rights as an essential first step toward addressing the decades of wage stagnation and growing income inequality plaguing our economy. Other states should follow Michigan’s lead.”
Michigan AFL-CIO
March 17, 2023
It is exceedingly rare for states to overturn right-to-work laws. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said if Whitmer signs the bill into law, Michigan will be the first state to repeal a right-to-work law in nearly six decades. (Missouri voters overwhelmingly shot down their own legislature’s right-to-work laws in a 2018 ballot referendum.)
The Washington Post
March 17, 2023