In Wisconsin, a shortage of reliable and high-quality day care predated COVID-19, and the demands that came with the pandemic has tended to make care less reliable and more expensive. According to a 2020 analysis by the liberal Economic Policy Institute, the average cost for infant care in Wisconsin is more than $12,500 per year; care for a 4-year-old costs an average of more than $10,000 per year.
Wisconsin Public Radio
January 28, 2022
The report also says that the pension and health care benefits for local public employees in Virginia is less generous than in other parts of the country, and that local government employees in Virginia are paid 30% less than private sector workers with similar levels of education, age and hours worked, according to a 2021 study by the Economic Policy Institute.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
January 28, 2022
The Economic Policy Institute noted in April 2020 that job losses have hit Black people especially hard, and for those who are working service jobs, essential workers gigs, the pandemic put them at risk of death.
New York Amsterdam News
January 28, 2022
Unsurprisingly, the union-backed Economic Policy Institute echoed that position. “The substantial level of union activity in 2021 (including organizing drives and strikes), along with polling data showing the large share of workers who would like a union at their workplace, demonstrate that workers want and value unions,” it opined.
The 74 Million
January 28, 2022
With those jobs now returning, that blip has leveled off, according to an analysis of 2021 data from the progressive Economic Policy Institute (paywall).
Law360
January 28, 2022
Meanwhile, the BLS report showed promising data for communities of color. Black workers continued to have the highest unionization rate in 2021, with 12.9% membership. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, Black union workers are paid 13.7% more than their non-union peers.
Workday Minnesota
January 28, 2022
https://www.kold.com/2022/01/26/kold-investigates-women-workforce-account-most-great-resignation/
KOLD News 13
January 28, 2022
A 2021 report from the Economic Policy Institute cited the positive impact tariffs have had on domestic production.
Public News Service
January 28, 2022
Teacher shortages have been reported across the country for years. Researchers from the Economic Policy Institute recently investigated this issue further and found that the problem is worse than they initially thought. Last year, the institute found that nationwide teacher shortages have reached 118,000 vacancies. That number and is forecast to increase to 200,000 by 2025.
The McDonough County Voice
January 28, 2022
The company then compared that median income to an estimate of the cost of living for our friendly Median Household, including median rent according to Census American Community Survey data as well as a basic necessities calculator from the Economic Policy Institute. It also calculated spending on “wants” using consumer spending data. Ultimately, they created a “basket of goods” indicating how much this median household would spend — and hence, how much they could save.
Greater Greater Washington
January 28, 2022
Unions have interpreted these data as evidence of an unfair marketplace rather than their own faults. “The path to formal union recognition and bargaining in this country is torture,” Larry Cohen, a former president of the Communications Workers of America, complained. His alternative, known as card check, would eliminate workers’ right to a secret ballot vote on representation. Heidi Shierholz, president of the union-funded Economic Policy Institute, argued that the “substantial level of union activity in 2021 and the polling data on union favorability” demonstrate the enduring appeal of unions.
The Wall Street Journal
January 28, 2022
Over the decades, tens of millions of African-Americans have flourished. Blacks have made enormous strides in gaining access to the most important key to higher earnings, education. In 2018 the Economic Policy Institute assessed the economic and educational state of black America 50 years after the Kerner Commission report warned of segregation and stagnation.
The Wall Street Journal
January 28, 2022
They want to see it set at a level that applies to at least the 55th percentile of earnings of full-time salaried workers in the country, which would have been $73,551 in 2021 and which, according to Economic Policy Institute projections, will increase to around $82,745 by 2026.
The American Prospect
January 28, 2022
But others interpret it differently. The nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute has its own “Family Budget Calculator.” And for an individual in Denver, the income needed for a “modest yet adequate standard of living” is $41,200 a year, or $19.81 an hour. It drops to $33,000 to $36,000 in Pueblo, Yuma and Mesa counties. Budget numbers are based on 2017 dollars, so it’s already out of date.
The Colorado Sun
January 28, 2022
Quotes Margaret on union membership numbers (paywall).
Newsday
January 28, 2022
Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said “it’s pretty clear that greater vaccine take-up is one of our best public health weapons, period.”
NBC News
January 28, 2022
Monique Morrisey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, explained there are differences among affected older workers, with 55 to 64 year olds who are not eligible for Medicare and in most cases are not yet receiving social security, and workers 65 and older who left the workforce. The issues facing late middle age workers are more worrisome, given their economic demographics.
The Guardian
January 28, 2022
Union membership has also been on the decline for decades, which the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute said tracked alongside an increasingly larger share of income going to the top 10%. The latest data released from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that union-membership numbers slid yet again.
Business Insider
January 28, 2022
Past underinvestment in school and state employees has contributed to today’s hiring problems, said Dave Kamper, senior state policy coordinator for the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C.
Pew Charitable Trust
January 28, 2022
What was unusual about the anti-union consulting work was how much money the company spent on it: more than $1.1 million in less than a year, according to Labor Department disclosure filings. A 2020 Economic Policy Institute analysis found that only a handful of companies have broken the $1 million mark on consultant spending in recent years.
The Huffington Post
January 28, 2022
Child care workers have long been underpaid and given fewer benefits like health insurance, according to a November 2021 report from the Economic Policy Institute.
CNN Business
January 28, 2022
according to a 2019 report from the Economic Policy Institute. In the last 10 years, the salary of teachers in Texas has stayed about…(paywall).
San Antonio News-Express
January 28, 2022
It’s hard to tell how many workers will see their paychecks grow, considering the current volatile job market, says Julia Wolfe, a state economic analyst for the Economic Policy Institute. But roughly 39 million people — 28% of the workforce — earned less than $15 dollars an hour in 2019, before the pandemic hit.
The Center for Public Integrity
January 28, 2022
It’s hard to tell how many workers will see their paychecks grow, considering the current volatile job market, says Julia Wolfe, a state economic analyst for the Economic Policy Institute. But roughly 39 million people — 28% of the workforce — earned less than $15 dollars an hour in 2019, before the pandemic hit.
The Center for Public Integrity
January 28, 2022
Think about that as you contemplate crossing the picket line at King Soopers. But there are other reasons to support the strike. In a report released last December, the Economic Policy Institute showed how unions are not only good for workers but also for communities and democracy.
Boulder Weekly
January 21, 2022
While the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimates the rule will raise wages for up to 390,000 federal contractors, roughly half of whom are women or people of color, some labor market observers said spillover effects could be limited because the bulk of workers on federal contracts are not paid minimum wages.
Bloomberg Law
January 21, 2022
Terri Gerstein is the director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.
Route Fifty
January 21, 2022
Features Rob discussing inflation.
The Rick Smith Show
January 21, 2022
Schneider said no one has a totally satisfying answer as to why retail stores and restaurants have had such a hard time staffing up in the past six months. After all, he pointed out, many of the people who would usually fill those jobs had no safety net before the pandemic either. But a few theories add up to explain much of the problem. Long-term downward trends in immigration to the United States, and especially low immigration levels in the past two years, might have choked off an important source of low-wage workers. Increased difficulty in finding adequate and affordable child care is another reason, especially for the many families that may have relied on older relatives who have been lost to the pandemic. And some people have simply left the retail and food-service industries altogether, switching to other kinds of work. “A better way to think about the labor-shortage problem is that we have a pay-shortage problem,” Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, told me. Workers who take less-than-ideal jobs after mass layoffs might be more likely to stick with them instead of looking for a better role if the circumstances of many of those jobs weren’t so bad.
The Atlantic
January 21, 2022