EPI Research (Page 20)

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  The Effects of the Proposed California Minimum Wage Increase

  October 2000

  “Living wage” laws have been enacted in more than fifty states and cities. These laws force employers to pay wages above the federal minimum wage based on some definition of the needs of a hypothetical family, usually a family of four. In an attempt to increase the income of low-wage workers, living wage supporters have proposed state minimum wage levels greater than the federal minimum[…]
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  Higher Minimum Wages Harm Minority and Inner-City Teens

  September 2000

  Economists and policy makers once again find themselves engaged in a heated debate over proposed legislation to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 per hour. A neglected, yet important, component of this debate is the effect of minimum wage hikes on teenagers’ employment and school enrollment. The scant number of studies on this issue have yielded contradictory findings, leaving the issue unresolved. The[…]
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  The Living Wage: Survey of Labor Economists

  August 2000

  The 2000 Living Wage Survey was conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center for the Employment Policies Institute in February and March, 2000. Three hundred thirty-six (336) labor economists in the United States completed mail questionnaires for the survey. A list of economists was obtained from the American Economic Association (AEA) and consisted of all AEA members who indicated that their primary or[…]
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  Living Wage Policy: The Basics

  August 2000

  The “living wage” movement has captured the hearts of many policy makers. Unfortunately, their minds have lagged dangerously behind. Thrust into the public forum by the AFL-CIO, the New Party and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the living wage move-ment is now being debated and has been adopted in dozens of cities and counties across the nation. More often than not, lawmakers are[…]
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  The Relative Compensation of Part-Time and Full-Time Workers

  July 2000

  Since the UPS strike in 1997, organized labor and some policy makers have been highly critical of part-time employment. At the root of these criticisms is the alleged wage gap experienced by part-time employees. At first glance it appears that part-timers earn substantially less than their full-time counterparts. Dr. Barry Hirsch shows in this study that the apparent wage gap is not nearly as large[…]
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  National Good Times, Local Bad Times: The Local Area Unemployment Crisis

  July 2000

  In the midst of the national economic boom, regional pockets of the economy are surprisingly weak. The following list comprises counties and cities (each with a population of at least 10,000 people) struggling with unemployment rates that are more than twice the national average. These localities are encountering great difficulty keeping their citizens productively employed. They face even greater challenges moving low-skilled people from welfare[…]