The Economic Policy Institute, whose mission is to “to defend and promote the interests of workers in economic policy debates,” also does not believe the U.S. is currently in a recession, but said the Federal Reserve should halt its aggressive anti-inflationary policies to avoid further declines.
Media Matters
August 4, 2022
“The effect of a 0.75% rate increase on mortgage and credit card interest rates is probably already baked in – both have risen in recent months and it’s the most-obvious way rate increases affect households,” Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute, said.
The Hill
August 4, 2022
But so long as hiring continues, liberal economists believe that public opinion will change and fears of a recession will fade. The White House analyses are “grounded in data,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
“People will understand that if we continue to have extremely low unemployment that the idea we’re in a recession just doesn’t make a lot of sense,” she said.
Associated Press
August 4, 2022
“If they continue on a hawkish path much longer, a recession is quite probable. This would be a huge and avoidable policy mistake,” said Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute, who backed Powell’s renomination because of pro-worker changes made to the Fed’s operating framework. The damaged caused, he argued, would be “far greater than that by single-digit inflation rates.”
Reuters
August 4, 2022
Josh Bivens, the director of research at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, echoed those warnings on Wednesday and warned “the cost of a recession would be far higher than any benefit to piling on more contractionary policy to rein in already-fading inflation.”
New York Times
August 4, 2022
“Part of the issue is that as an inflation control strategy, interest rate hikes are not so great right now,” said Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. “I think a lot of the sources of inflation we’re seeing are things that interest rate hikes aren’t going to really get at.”
Scripps TV
July 20, 2022
The rate of unionisation is now even lower than it was before workers had a federally protected right to join unions. That is no coincidence. Unions give workers and their communities the power to ensure that the American economy’s productivity gains are shared more evenly. As unions have withered, the benefits of increased economic capacity have flowed to a very small share of the population.
The Economist
July 20, 2022
“People most hurt by high inflation are also seeing a ton of job growth,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “Given the burden of high inflation and high job availability, it’s not at all a surprise to me that you’d see people doubling up on jobs.”
The Washington Post
July 20, 2022
according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, net productivity rose 61.8 percent, while the hourly rate of pay for the average worker increased by only 17.5 percent.3 In other words, even though today’s worker is more productive than ever before, she has seen wages stagnate, prices increase, profits disappear into deep pockets, politics favor the wealthy, and working conditions worsen.
Nonprofit Quarterly
July 20, 2022
“Higher unemployment lowers wage growth much more reliably and by larger amounts than it lowers inflation,” notes Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, noted last week. “Currently, wage growth is decelerating. This means there is no genuine need for a recession to pull wage growth down to sustainable levels.”
Common Dreams
July 20, 2022
Teresa Ghilarducci is the Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. She’s the co-author of “Rescuing Retirement” and a member of the board of directors of the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg
July 20, 2022
CEO pay has skyrocketed in recent decades: CEO compensation rose 1,322.2% from 1978 to 2020 adjusted for inflation, compared to an 18% increase in worker compensation, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis released last year. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the gap in compensation, a New York Times study conducted by Equilar last June revealed.
Forbes
July 20, 2022
Daniel Costa’s testimony before the Education and Labor Committee.
U.S. House Education and Labor Committee
July 20, 2022
The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is worth less today than at any point since February 1956, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Then, the minimum stood at 75 cents per hour, or $7.19 in today’s dollars.
Fortune
July 20, 2022
Factoring in the latest inflation data, the current value of the U.S. minimum wage in real dollars is at its lowest level since February 1956, when the base U.S. wage was 75 cents (or $7.19 in June 2022 dollars), according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank that favors raising worker pay.
CBS News
July 20, 2022
While the UK economy is subject to the same global factors as other countries … strikingly in a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute. (paywall)
The Times
July 20, 2022
Based on June’s CPI report, the federal minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, sank to its lowest value than at any point since 1956, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Fortune
July 20, 2022
An Economic Policy Institute report found that union members are paid 11.2% more on average than non-union employees. This extra income can really help if you’re looking for ways to crush your debt.
Finance Buzz
July 20, 2022
Several tools exist to help users understand the various components of the federal budget. The Economic Policy Institute has developed an interactive tool that leads viewers through the key elements of the federal budget while showing them how households with their level of income compare to others. Similarly, the United States Treasury has created an in-depth interactive explorer that allows users to take a deep dive into how spending is allocated by program or by agency.
Peterson Foundation
July 20, 2022
However, Lawrence Mishel, a distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, told CNBC that the planned pay raises won’t come near matching the pace of inflation. “These corporate plans are not very hopeful, in my view,” he said. “The low wage increases will ensure that worker buying power falls.”
The National Interest
July 20, 2022
As inflation skyrockets, the federal minimum wage – which has remained at $7.25 per hour since 2009 – has reached its lowest value in 66 years, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.
Forbes
July 20, 2022
When the federal minimum wage was increased in February 1968 it was a “huge victory of the civil rights movement,” said Ben Zipper, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Yet it has not been increased again in over a decade, impacting many families and individuals.
Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance)
July 20, 2022
Gerstein, a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, co-authored a recent EPI report that documents a remarkable range of activity among local governments in the areas of worker protection — territory that, until perhaps a decade ago, almost never fell to them to design and implement.
Capital and Main
July 20, 2022
A 2018 report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute concluded that the benefits of regulations outweigh their costs by a 7-to-1 ratio, with a net gain to society of more than $100 billion per year, while a lack of “sensible regulations can lead to economic catastrophe and the loss of millions of jobs.”
The Atlantic
July 20, 2022
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, laid out a hypothetical example: “Let’s say you had a little bit of bargaining power in the fall because employers had to work a little harder to attract and retain you, and maybe you got higher wages, maybe you got some kind of a signing bonus,” she said. “There’s nothing structural in our economy that makes that last permanently, or even in the medium term.”
Business Insider
July 20, 2022
According to a 2019 report by the Economic Policy Institute, “The teacher shortage is real, large and growing” not only in California, but at the national level. A study, published in 2016 by the Learning Policy Institute, predicted that “by 2020, an estimated 300,000 new teachers will be needed each year, and by 2025, that number will increase to 316,000.” A 2022 report by the same institute showed two-thirds of surveyed districts had more vacancies than before COVID-19.
San Jose Spotlight
July 20, 2022
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the public teaching workforce appears to have shrunk by nearly 7%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. And a Rand Corp. survey last month found that about one-third of teachers and principals said they were likely to leave their current job by the end of the 2021-2022 school year.
Boston Herald
July 20, 2022
According to Accounting Today, many national groups are in support of the bill, including the Children’s Defense Fund, Public Citizen, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers, Americans for Tax Fairness, the Center for American Progress, the Center for Disability Rights, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Economic Policy Institute, the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program on Inequality, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the National Consumer Law Center and many more.
GoBanking Rates
July 20, 2022
