As auto manufacturing jobs move from the Midwest to the South, job quality in the sector declines. This is thanks to policies that disempower workers and are #RootedinRacism, finds EPI's Chandra Childers. Auto workers are paid less in the South than any other region. They also report high levels of illness, injury, and even death. And eroding worker safety laws across the region will only make workplaces less safe. When workers form unions, they can bargain collectively to improve their wages and conditions. Southern policymakers and employers know this, so they do everything they can to prevent workers from organizing, including union busting and passing right to work laws. But this isn’t stopping workers and communities in the South from demanding a different path forward. For example, workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted to join UAW in May. Also: Tennessee For All, a coalition of impacted West Tennesseans, is pushing for a Community Benefits Agreement with Ford to ensure that the majority Black agricultural communities of the region share in the benefits of the company’s subsidized EV venture. https://lnkd.in/gUvDW74n
Economic Policy Institute
Think Tanks
Washington, District of Columbia 22,513 followers
The working people's think tank.
About us
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank using the tools of economics for more than 30 years to defend and promote the interests of workers in economic policy debates at the national, state, and local level. EPI was created in 1986 to broaden discussions about economic policy to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers. EPI believes every working person deserves a good job with fair pay, affordable health care, and retirement security. To achieve this goal, EPI conducts research and analysis on the economic status of working America. EPI proposes public policies that protect and improve the economic conditions of low- and middle-income workers and assesses policies with respect to how they affect those workers.
- Website
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http://www.epi.org
External link for Economic Policy Institute
- Industry
- Think Tanks
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- Washington, District of Columbia
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Founded
- 1986
- Specialties
- Policy, Research, and Economics
Locations
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Primary
1225 Eye St NW
Suite 600
Washington, District of Columbia 20005, US
Employees at Economic Policy Institute
Updates
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Back to school unfortunately means back to a lack of diversity among teachers in the classroom. Here's why that matters especially for education policy, academic outcomes, and students of color. https://lnkd.in/eq2CgJvR
Improving teacher diversity is key to reducing racial disparities in academic outcomes and addressing the teacher shortage
https://www.epi.org
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In Q2 of 2024, the labor market softened as unemployment rates increased across groups from the record-low rates achieved over the last year, according to our latest State Unemployment by Race and Ethnicity report. The national unemployment rate rose to 4%, and the Black unemployment rate rose to 6.3%. Racial disparities in unemployment remained unchanged, with the national Black-white unemployment ratio still at 2:1. A softening labor market means there’s room for the US economy to grow further and narrow unemployment gaps. "With interest rates as high as they have been in 20 years, a [Fed] rate cut could create space for new activity to push unemployment rates down," says EPI's Kyle Moore. Check out the report to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gaAxU5a
2024 Q2 | State Unemployment by Race and Ethnicity
https://www.epi.org
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It’s hot outside ☀️ 🌡️ 🥵 To address this threat to worker safety, the Biden-Harris administration recently proposed “the first-ever federal regulation on heat stress in the workplace.” The rule would help protect millions and reduce heat-related injury and illness. The proposed rule would require employers to allocate time & areas for rest breaks and develop a heat injury & illness prevention plan, among other protections. This is a welcome policy effort to protect workers from the global climate crisis ✊🏽 ✊🏿 ✊🏾 🌎 🍃 https://lnkd.in/eEcReCmm
Proposed federal rule would protect workers from extreme heat
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Economic Policy Institute reposted this
NEW: It's crucial that state lawmakers implement heat protection standards for Florida workers, as FPI finds that more than 5.7 million Floridians are "highly vulnerable" to the extreme heat. Read the latest report from FPI's Alexis Tsoukalas, PhD, and Adriana Sela 👇 #floridapolicy #heatprotection #heatprotectionstandards #workerprotections #climatechange
High Heat, Higher Responsibility: The Sunshine State Must Enact Policies to Protect Working Floridians
floridapolicy.org
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The Peter G. Peterson Foundation asked seven different think tanks from across the ideological spectrum how they would stabilize the US national debt. EPI's plan outlines a path to boosting living standards and economic security while also putting our government on a more sustainable fiscal path. Our top three policy recommendations are: 1️⃣ Increase revenue by allowing tax cuts to expire 2️⃣ Strengthen Social Security 3️⃣ Reduce healthcare costs. Read our proposal to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gCn9_xVi
Left or right, regardless of your political perspective, there are many good options to put our government on a more sustainable fiscal path. #FiscalPolicy #NationalDebt
Solutions Initiative 2024: Charting a Brighter Future
https://solutions2024.pgpf.org
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📉 Prices for some goods have fallen over the past 2 years, with the biggest improvements in energy prices. Consumers will be paying 29% less for gas and 36% less for heating oil compared to prices in June 2022. Learn more on our blog: https://lnkd.in/gHAu8AfV
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Don’t believe the lies gig work companies like Uber and Lyft are spreading! They say that to provide the flexibility workers want, they have to misclassify workers as independent contractors, which strips workers of protections like minimum wage & time off. But workers CAN have both flexibility AND decent pay & work conditions! Allowing companies to exploit workers like this harms gig economy, flexible, and part-time workers, who are predominately women and people of color. Policymakers should prioritize providing workplace benefits and protections that offer employees REAL flexibility with REAL protections, including paid leave, scheduling fairness, and the strengthened ability to form and join unions. Learn more on our blog: https://lnkd.in/eKmBy8jS
Flexible work: What workers, especially low-wage workers, really want and how best to provide it
https://www.epi.org
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Southern politicians often say that their business-friendly policies will produce “good jobs.” But is that true? In Chandra Childers’s new #RootedinRacism report, she shows that Southerners’ access to quality pay & benefits is actually the lowest in the US. “Workers and families across the South deserve an economic model that centers and empowers [them],” says Childers. Did you know that workers in the South are: ❌paid less than their counterparts in other parts of the US ❌least likely to have employer-provided health insurance ❌least likely to have paid sick leave ❌least likely to be in a union Southerners from all backgrounds will need to come together to demand policies that create a new economic development model. Read the report to learn more: https://lnkd.in/e-mrZxg6
Southern policymakers leave workers with lower wages and a fraying safety net: Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation: Part Three
https://www.epi.org
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The past few years have seen a rise in workers who are interested in, but unsure about, unions, according to a new report from John Ahlquist, Jake Grumbach, and Tom Kochan (MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER)). These "union curious" workers could be unsure because of a lack of exposure to unions or knowledge about their impacts. Read the report to learn more about this pivotal and growing group of "union curious" workers: https://lnkd.in/eYC9ADpU
The rise of the ‘union curious’: Support for unionization among America’s frontline workers
https://www.epi.org