EPI in the news

• An Anti-Tourism Backlash Puts Europe’s Vacation Hot Spots in a Bind

  In particular, the short-term holiday rental platform Airbnb has become a lightning rod for local anger at skyrocketing rental prices. A recent study from the Economic Policy Institute, a U.S.-based think tank, found that Airbnb’s “introduction and expansion in New York City … may have raised average rents by nearly $400 annually for city residents.” And in Barcelona, rental prices have risen by a staggering 68 percent in less than a decade.

  Yahoo News | November 12, 2024
• Trump should break these five campaign promises to keep the Texas economy thriving

  Repealing the ACA without a replacement would leave most enrollees without health insurance. Those people would visit health care providers less often, possibly costing the industry 1.2 million jobs, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute calculated.

  Houston Chronicle | November 12, 2024
• Voters in Alaska, Missouri approve minimum wage increase to $15

  “Generally speaking, voters still want policies that improve job quality and strengthen protections for workers,” said David Cooper, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C. “That is what we’ve seen virtually anytime a ballot measure on the minimum wage is put forward”

  Pluribus News | November 12, 2024
• Red, blue, and green: US voters elected minimum wage increases

  David Cooper, the director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told BI there’s been a “real sea change” in people’s understanding of the impact of hikes. Both he and Lathrop have observed a move away from the belief that higher minimum wages would lead to fewer jobs and toward research showing that pay hikes mean higher pay with minimal job loss.

  “Raising the minimum wage almost always has bipartisan support except among elected Republican officials. So there is a disconnect between what elected Republicans want to do around minimum wage policy and what their voters overwhelming — at least by and large — tend to want them to do,” Cooper said.

  Business Insider | November 12, 2024
• Commentary: Paltry $3 wage increase explains Democrat losses

  To understand why Americans took out their frustrations around inflation at the polls you first need to understand that the bottom 60% of workers saw a real, or inflation adjusted, wage increase of only around $3 per hour between 1973 and 2023. (Hourly wage data are from the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group. Workers include all wage and salary workers 16 or older, which excludes the self-employed, and wages are adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumer Research Series. The data was prepared by the Economic Policy Institute.)

  Bloomberg | November 12, 2024
• DOJ files lawsuit against Mississippi State Senate for severely underpaying Black staffer

  A 2023 study by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank focused on financial inequalities, found the racial wage gap for Black workers has stayed about the same since the 1970s. The average Black worker in the U.S. is paid 23% less than a white worker, compared to 22% less in 1973. The study also notes the average white family has eight times as much wealth as a Black family.

  USA Today | November 12, 2024
• Stocks jump, the temperamental peso, and other election aftermath indicators

  For Alaska, I saw one estimate from the Economic Policy Institute that says the increase will affect about 10% of workers, and more than half that group is women. In Missouri, it’s about 12%, and one estimate from a group called the Missouri Budget Project says workers will get an extra thousand bucks every year.

  NPR Planet Money | November 12, 2024

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