EPI reports took a deep dive into the policies that would disproportionately benefit workers of color and women or improve wages and working conditions in occupations employing high shares of Black, Hispanic, and Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers.
The Raise the Wage Act would support essential care workersNearly 2 million direct care workers who provide long-term services and supports would benefit from a $15 minimum wage in 2025
The important and difficult work of helping people to lead dignified and independent lives, regardless of age or ability, is deeply undervalued. The 2021 Raise the Wage Act would increase the federal minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 per hour to $15 in 2025 and would disproportionately benefit direct care workers who provide long-term health and personal care services and supports to the elderly and people with disabilities. Continue reading
The stakes for workers in how policymakers manage the coming shift to all-electric vehicles
Rapid technological change, new market dynamics, and global action to mitigate climate change is driving a historic shift toward electric vehicles (EVs) in the automotive sector. Although hybrid electric vehicles have been part of the U.S. vehicle fleet for more than two decades, and some mass-market EVs have been available for over a decade, battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which are powered exclusively by a battery and an electric motor, currently make up a small part of U.S. auto sales. And the batteries and other drivetrain components in BEVs are largely made by non-U.S. suppliers. The coming shift toward BEVs is a transformational change to the industry that is by now inevitable. Continue reading
Ensuring the high road in CannabisLegalization offers a chance to make the cannabis industry a model of good jobs—if workers are given a voice
Rapid technological change, new market dynamics, and global action to mitigate climate change is driving a historic shift toward electric vehicles (EVs) in the automotive sector. Although hybrid electric vehicles have been part of the U.S. vehicle fleet for more than two decades, and some mass-market EVs have been available for over a decade, battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which are powered exclusively by a battery and an electric motor, currently make up a small part of U.S. auto sales. And the batteries and other drivetrain components in BEVs are largely made by non-U.S. suppliers. The coming shift toward BEVs is a transformational change to the industry that is by now inevitable. Continue reading
Unions can reduce the public-sector pay gapCollective bargaining rights and local government workers
Local government workers in Virginia recently won the right to bargain collectively over pay. However, union organizing efforts are just beginning in that state, where collective bargaining rights have historically been restricted.
This brief examines how public-sector workers in states like Virginia—with restricted collective bargaining rights—have fared in recent years compared with public-sector workers in states that have well-established collective bargaining rights. To do so, we estimate pay differences between local government workers and private-sector workers with similar education and experience. Continue reading
More than half a million child care workers would benefit from a $15 minimum wage in 2025
More than two in five child care workers would have higher pay if there were a $15 national minimum wage in 2025, as called for by the 2021 Raise the Wage Act. Of the child care workers who would get a raise, more than nine in 10 are women. Continue reading
Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would lift the pay of 32 million workersA demographic breakdown of affected workers and the impact on poverty, wages, and inequality
The Raise the Wage Act of 2021 would help eliminate poverty-level wages by raising the national minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025. This report finds that the raise is long overdue and would deliver broad benefits to workers and the economy. Continue reading
The promise and limits of high-pressure labor markets for narrowing racial gaps
One of the most compelling but underrecognized reasons that the Federal Reserve should aim for running the economy hot is the potential to narrow troubling racial gaps in wages and employment. Expansionary macroeconomic policies—policies that prioritize low unemployment over preemptively slowing growth in aggregate demand in the name of controlling potential inflation—create “high-pressure” labor markets characterized by very low unemployment and rapid job growth. While the legacy and present effects of structural racism mean that high-pressure labor markets by themselves are unlikely to fully erase race-based gaps in labor market outcomes, the potential to narrow these gaps is an undeniable benefit of more-expansionary macroeconomic policy. Continue reading