Many corporations increased profits. The Economic Policy Institute says that from 1973 to 2019, profits amounted to 11.5% of price growth, with labor making up 62%. From 2020 to 2021, it was 54% profits and 8% labor. Tyson Foods doubled profits in 2021 and 2022 as inflating prices cost people millions.
Reading Eagle
October 28, 2024
And a September report by the Economic Policy Institute found that a spike in profits explains well over 40% of the rise in prices between the end of 2019 and mid-2022.
Capital and Main
October 28, 2024
Half of low-wage workers are married or have children, and low-wage workers are more likely to be at or near poverty and consequently dependent on public assistance programs. The Labor Center researchers mined these statistics and other data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Economic Policy Institute and the California Employment Development Department, creating an online data explorer that describes the low-wage workforce in California.
Sacramento Bee
October 28, 2024
Jennifer Sherer, director of the State Worker Power Initiative with the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, left-leaning think tank, told the Michigan Advance the data confirms increasing support for collective bargaining among workers.
“The steady uptick in NLRB petitions for union elections in the Midwest reflects what we are seeing across the country: the labor movement is in the midst of a resurgence and workers are organizing at a pace not seen in recent decades. Worker organizing is taking place in all sectors of the economy from health care and manufacturing to nonprofits and higher education,” said Sherer.
Michigan Advance
October 28, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute, a progressive thinktank, estimates that the US lost 682,000 jobs due to Nafta, which largely eliminated tariffs between the US, Mexico and Canada.
The Guardian
October 28, 2024
“The literal prices that people see on goods make them think that they’re not doing as well because they feel that they are higher than they think they should be,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute But, those prices are actually lower as a share of their wages than they were four years ago.”
States Newsroom
October 28, 2024
Labor economists dispute the notion that the changes will harm the economy. “Whenever a labor standard is increased, there is always a chorus of business that says the sky will fall and it never does,” Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington D.C.-based progressive think tank, told Stacker. “Somehow we have labor standards that improve over time.”
Stacker
October 25, 2024
Another ding against pensions is the fear the employer-sponsor will go belly up. Monique Morrissey at the Economic Policy Institute said that concern is overblown.
“In the private sector, benefits are guaranteed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation,” Morrissey said.
In the public sector, pension funds come from government coffers, and Morrissey said one way to balance the budget “is by not contributing the full amount to the pension.”
Marketplace
October 25, 2024
Trump once deemed himself “a Tariff Man” on Twitter—a name that could backfire. His proposed tariffs could increase costs for American households by $2,500 to $3,000 every year, Adam Hersh, a senior economist at nonpartisan advocacy group EPI Action, told NBC.
Fortune
October 25, 2024
According to Josh Bivens, Ph.D., Chief Economist at the nonpartisan research-based Economic Policy Institute [EPI], the Trump administration squandered the economic strength he inherited from Obama–even before his mismanagement of the pandemic completely devastated it.
NewsOne
October 25, 2024
Globalization and trade impacts also hit the Iron Range and rural America disproportionately along educational lines. Americans without college degrees lost nearly $2,000 a year in wages due to trade policies, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Broader research showed, as of 2008, that “international trade tends to make low-skilled workers in the United States worse off – not just temporarily, but on a sustained basis.”
Public News Service
October 25, 2024
In April the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute found that since 1949 the nation’s annual real growth has been 1.2 percentage points higher under Democratic administrations than under Republican administrations and total job growth averages 2.5% annually under Democrats compared to barely over 1% under Republicans. Business investment is more than double the pace under Democrats than under Republicans; average rates of inflation are slightly lower under Democrats; and families in the bottom 20% of the economy experience income growth almost twice as fast under Democrats than under Republicans.
Nevada Appeal
October 25, 2024
South Dakota is one of 30 states, plus the District of Columbia, that has adopted a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, according to The Economic Policy Institute. South Dakota’s minimum wage is currently the 25th highest in that group.
South Dakota Searchlight
October 25, 2024
Infant care in Alabama costs on average $3,826 less than yearly in-state tuition for four-year public college, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Alabama Reflector
October 25, 2024
A senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute, Sean O’Leary, has calculated that only 18,636 jobs can be directly connected to fracking. With indirect jobs figures from the Economic Policy Institute, the total number would be about 55,000 jobs. That’s about a tenth of the number claimed by Trump.
The Independent
October 25, 2024
As of the end of 2023 — using state data for oil and gas extraction, drilling for oil and gas, support services for oil and gas, and pipeline construction and transportation — O’Leary calculates that only 18,636 jobs can be directly attributed to fracking. Using indirect job multipliers published by the Economic Policy Institute, the overall job figure would be about 55,000 — about one-tenth of Trump’s number.
The Washington Post
October 25, 2024
Pensions, on the other hand, are much more evenly distributed, and the shift away from them has helped accelerate U.S. inequality. In 2013, almost 75 percent of Hispanic families, 60 percent of Black families and 35 percent of White families had no retirement savings, the Economic Policy Institute found.
The Washington Post
October 25, 2024
That effort died in 2021 after the election of President Joe Biden, the Economic Policy Institute reports. “We encourage all eligible graduate students to …[paywall].
St. Louis Post Dispatch
October 23, 2024
In 2021, the Democrat-aligned Economic Policy Institute think tank said that raising the federal minimum wage to $15 would increase total wages by $107 billion.
The Telegraph
October 23, 2024
Union negotiations often last more than a year: A Bloomberg Law analysis from 2022 showed it takes an average of 465 days, or 1.27 years, to reach a first contract. That figure is likely around 500 now, per an Economic Policy Institute report from last year.
Seattle Times
October 23, 2024
In April, the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute reported that from 1949 to present:
- The nation’s annual growth rate was 1.2% higher under Democratic administrations than Republican ones;
- Annual job growth averaged 2.5% per year under Democratic administrations compared to just over 1% under Republican ones;
Insider Utah
October 23, 2024
Child labor violations in the United States are increasing and could get even worse if current regulations remain unchanged.
The report by Governing for Impact, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Child Labor Coalition recently warned that many companies are still exploiting rules included in the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA), which authorized some restrictions on child labor.
Specifically, the report noted that there have been significant “increases” in child labor violations, chronic school absenteeism, and workplace injuries involving kids.
Parent Herald
October 23, 2024
He’s also an avowed union buster and, according to the pro-labor think tank Economic Policy Institute, his administration “rolled back worker protections, proposed budgets that slash funding for agencies that safeguard workers’ rights, wages, and safety, and consistently attacked workers’ ability to organize and collectively bargain” and “systematically promoted the interests of corporate executives and shareholders over those of working people.”
MSNBC.com
October 23, 2024
Research from the Economic Policy Institute found the pay gap between public-sector employees and private-sector workers with similar levels of education, experience and seniority has risen to 17.6 percent since the pandemic. In states with weak bargaining rights for public sector workers, such as Colorado, the gap is even higher, at 20.1 percent.
Westword
October 22, 2024
Nina Mast, an analyst at the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute, said that while ultimately the employer is responsible for making sure they are following the rules, these programs can create confusion about who is accountable for the safety of the student worker.
“It really raises concerns about how these programs exist, and like whether they really need to be reformed or eliminated to begin with,” Mast said. “You’re having more children being driven to the labor market to fill the so-called labor shortage. You see employers violating the law because they’re treated like adults, but they’re not adults.”
Cascade PBS
October 22, 2024
Raising the minimum wage in our state means that local residents have more money to spend in the local economy. Economic analysis suggests that states with higher minimum wages have faster job growth in leisure and hospitality industries, which are two essential parts of our local economy. And research from the Economic Policy Institute shows little to no job losses from minimum wage increases; rather, raising the minimum wage reduces staff turnover and increases worker productivity, which decreases businesses’ costs of hiring and training new staff.
WHQR Public Radio (North Carolina)
October 22, 2024
In general, lower-wage workers across the economy have seen some of the largest pay gains since the start of the pandemic. When adjusted for inflation, wages for lower-income workers have jumped nearly 17% since 2019, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. That compares to just a 7% increase for middle-wage workers when inflation is factored in.
NBC News
October 22, 2024
If Proposition A is passed, the minimum wage would increase to $13.75 on Jan. 1, and to $15 by Jan. 1, 2026. Starting in 2027, the state would adjust the minimum wage annually based on the Consumer Price Index.
This change would impact about 900,000 workers, or about a third of all workers in Missouri, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Columbia Missourian
October 22, 2024
For that reason, Vice President Kamala Harris has called Trump’s tariff proposals “a sales tax on the American people” that she says would raise costs for households by $4,000 each year. Adam Hersh, a senior economist at EPI Action, the advocacy arm of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, puts that estimate lower but still in the four-figure range at $2,500 to 3,000 per year.
NBC News
October 22, 2024
“Employers are legally required to ensure that tipped workers’ tips cover the gap between the tip minimum wage and the regular minimum wage. But, in practice, this is highly difficult to enforce,” said Sebastian Martinez Hickey a state economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute.
“Tipped workers are very low-paid workers. They earn about a third less than the median worker in the U.S. economy, and they experience poverty at much greater rates than the typical worker,” Martinez Hickey said. These workers, he added, are “predominantly women, disproportionately women of color.”
Marketplace
October 22, 2024