EPI in the news

• Manufacturers say their worker shortage is getting worse. Here’s why

  A report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found temporary staffing lowered wages by 4 percent. The share of temporary workers in the manufacturing sector has also increased–accounting for 11.3 percent of all manufacturing workers in 2015, up from 2.3 percent in 1989.

  PBS Newshour | November 19, 2018
• Conservative Arkansas could soon have the highest effective minimum wage in the country

   

  Seattle has been a big test case in the push to increase the minimum wage around the country, and Arkansas is likely to draw that kind of attention soon. Researchers at the University of Washington found in a recent study that the city’s higher wages have lifted pay, but worker hours have been cut as a result. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute criticized the study, arguing the job losses were negligible and probably caused by the rapid rise in pay in the city because of Seattle’s economic and tech boom. … The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour hasn’t increased since 2009 and is worth substantially less than the minimum wage was in the 1960s once adjusted for inflation, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  The Washington Post | November 9, 2018
• Two red states approved a minimum wage increase. Is the federal government next?

  Dave on ~1:19 mark

  Marketplace | November 9, 2018
• Voters in GOP-led states give themselves raise, increasing minimum wage

   

  The federal minimum wage hasn’t seen an increase since 2009, when it rose from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour. Yet costs for essentials such as health care and housing have surged since then, with inflation reducing its spending power by more than 12 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Pay for the top 1 percent of American workers has soared, however. In 20017, annual wages for top earners rose 3.7 percent, but the bottom 90 percent of workers saw wage gains of 1 percent, EPI found. The difference is even more striking when examining pay growth since the late 1970s: The top 1 percent’s income has surged more than 157 percent, or about 7 times more than that of the bottom 90 percent.  Because the federal minimum wage doesn’t appear likely to receive a boost under the Trump administration, state and municipal lawmakers are enacting local laws to push up the baseline pay rate. Currently, 29 states and Washington, D.C., have higher minimum wages than the federal rate, according to EPI. The bulk of those increases have come within the last four years, with 23 states pushing up their minimum wage laws since 2014.

  CBS Moneywatch | November 8, 2018
• Voters just gave nearly 1 million workers a raise in 2 red states

   

  Both ballot measures add up to millions of dollars in extra earnings for the lowest-paid workers in each state. In Arkansas, Issue 5 will pump an extra $400 million into the paychecks of low-wage workers over the next three years, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Proposition B will give workers in Missouri an extra $870 million in additional wages over five years.

  VOX | November 8, 2018
• Many small businesses downtown welcome a higher minimum wage

   

  Proposition B will affect over 670,000 workers in the state, according to Economic Policy Institute. It will result in an increase of more than $1 billion in consumer buying power in Missouri by the time it is fully phased in.

  The Columbia Missourian | November 8, 2018
• Missouri votes to raise the minimum wage, clean up politics, legalize medical marijuana

   

  According to an analysis conducted the Economic Policy Institute, Proposition B will result in an increase of more than $1 billion in consumer buying power in Missouri by the time it is fully phased in, affecting over 670,000 workers. This growth in buying power will occur among the lowest-wage families: those most likely to spend new earnings with small, local businesses.

  St. Louis American | November 8, 2018

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