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Good afternoon, Friend.
This month, we're taking a closer look at another of EPI’s key program areas, the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN). By providing a deeper dive into our program areas, we hope to give you an inside look at the work that your support makes possible. Future updates will take a closer look at EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE) and issue areas such as immigration, unions, and labor standards.
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Since our beginning, EPI has worked with partners and allied organizations to shape the conversation around issues of economic fairness for U.S. workers. Twenty-three years ago, EPI established the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) to more effectively partner with state policy groups to address the impact of economic policies at the state and regional levels where critical decisions are often made. EARN’s national network of close to 60 think tanks and policy organizations operates in over 40 states and the District of Columbia and focuses on key issues such as raising the minimum wage, protecting and improving benefits, defending and expanding workers’ rights, protections for immigrant workers, and advancing racial, gender, and economic equity.
Workers across the country have lost economic ground as a result of the pandemic with women, people of color, and service workers being hit particularly hard. EARN’s 2021 STATE POLICY AGENDA: Building a Just and Inclusive Recovery for All Workers lays out a detailed pathway for states and cities to effectively respond to workers’ demands for economic security, health and safety protections, and workplace democracy. The policy agenda was developed in partnership with the National Employment Law Project, and it outlines four broad categories of action that states and cities should take to protect working families and promote a just and fully inclusive recovery:
- Guarantee strong workplace health and safety protections and support for unemployed people. Workers and the public must feel safe, and workers whose jobs have disappeared or only partially returned must have support if our society is to weather the current crisis.
- Promote good jobs to help frontline workers and families weather the pandemic and thrive. Upgrading the quality of jobs is more urgent than ever as we emerge from the pandemic. Our frontline workers have been among the most exploited in our economy.
- Fight for a racially just recovery by promoting equitable access to jobs for Black and Latinx workers hardest hit by the pandemic and unemployment. The recession triggered by the pandemic has been one of our nation’s most unequal, impacting Black and Latinx workers the hardest. These workers are disproportionately represented in service industries that still have not fully reopened, and they are often the last to be hired when jobs finally return.
- Reject austerity politics by advocating for the resources states and cities need to fight the pandemic and sustain vital services. State and local governments are on the front lines of the dual health and economic crises and provide the critical services needed to manage continuing challenges of the pandemic and improve economic security.
EARN’s 2021 State Policy Agenda may be viewed in its entirety here.
EPI’s EARN staff coordinate the work of the network and provide essential data and policy guidance to our EARN partners. Recent examples of EPI’s support include data and policy guidance provided to our EARN partner in Virginia, which led to state lawmakers ultimately passing a statewide $15 minimum wage—the first among Southern states. Our Virginia EARN partner used data and analysis provided by EPI’s EARN staff to publish reports describing the impact of a $15 minimum wage and the disproportionate benefits for women workers, and to push back on efforts to establish a weaker regional minimum wage in the state. EPI also provided data and technical assistance to our EARN partner in Florida in preparation for a ballot initiative that passed last year that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $15/hour. EPI provided the data and analysis used by advocates to push for the increase, while EARN partners were critical in getting research into the hands of advocates and lawmakers. Other recent work or publications by EARN member organizations may be viewed here.
EARNCON is an annual gathering presented by EPI’s EARN staff that brings together EARN’s member organizations from across the country, leading economic thinkers, policy experts, labor activists, community organizers, and academic researchers to learn from each other, share best practices and success stories, present research, discuss strategies, sharpen skills, and make plans to advance pro-worker and racial justice policies.
Last year, due to the pandemic, EPI hosted a virtual version of EARNCON. EARNConversations 2020 was held over 10 days in the fall and featured workshops, trainings, and networking events to empower state and local organizations to build the movement for a fair economy. We were also able to offer our popular Data Bootcamp, providing data analysis training for EARN groups and other partners. In 2019 the sessions were standing room only; hosting the 2020 event virtually allowed for significantly more participation. EARNConversations 2021 will again be virtual and will take place September 27 – October 1, 2021.
Building power in states and cities is more important than ever, and EARN is an essential foundation for progressive action across the country. Recognizing that different regions of the United States have their own economic issues and challenges and that national trends may have differing regional impacts, in 2018 EPI launched the EARN in the South initiative (EIS), which connects EARN partner organizations with local community-based advocacy organizations in 12 southern states to help build their capacity to take on worker justice issues. A key feature of the initiative is the creation of a peer learning community for EIS members and grassroots partners to travel and meet with their counterparts in other organizations in the region to share best practices, discuss common challenges, and develop regional strategies and messaging.
EARN has built on the successful EIS model to create EARN in the Midwest, an initiative to provide resources and networks to local groups in the region to make the advocacy infrastructure in their states more effective. As with EIS, the initiative connects the efforts of grassroots partners with Midwestern EARN groups to bolster their relationships and capacity, so they are better poised to win meaningful economic, gender, and racial justice policy reforms for workers.
EARN has recently launched a new Worker Power Project that focuses on expanding the ability of working people to achieve racial, gender, and economic justice through organizing, collective bargaining, and state and local policies that promote worker voice. The project draws directly on EPI and EARN groups’ longstanding commitment to economic policies that work for working people, while building new capacity to support workers in achieving the collective, democratic power necessary to bring dignity to all work, achieve racial and gender equity across occupations and industries, and shape a new worker-centered economy for the future.
For more information about EARN, contact us at earn@epi.org.
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Here are some other EPI highlights:
Recent Webinars
On Thursday July 29, EPI presented the webinar How wage suppression was caused by policy decisions made on behalf of the rich and corporations.
A loss of $10/hour in the typical worker’s compensation is the result of employers’ successful efforts to keep wage growth down over the past 40 years, as documented by Lawrence Mishel and Josh Bivens in Identifying the Policy Levers Generating Wage Suppression and Wage Inequality. This paper explains why workers’ pay has lagged far behind the growth in productivity over the period from 1979 to 2017. The findings have gotten national attention, including a New York Times article about the paper, “Middle-Class Pay Lost Pace. Is Washington to Blame?” This webinar, featuring leading experts on wage suppression and wage inequality, delved into the seminal report’s findings and provided proposals on how we can eliminate wage suppression.
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EPI Making a Difference
Senator Tina Smith cited EPI’s wage theft report in a question to David Weil during his confirmation hearing for his nomination to head the wage and hour division at the Department of Labor.
EPI economist Monique Morrissey testified before the Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Council on “Gaps in Retirement Savings Based on Race, Ethnicity and Gender.”
EPI PREE Director Valerie Wilson participated in a Treasury roundtable discussion with national Black leaders on the state of the economy and ways to improve wealth inequality.
EPI Senior Economist and Director of Policy Heidi Shierholz met with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to discuss labor and macroeconomic policies.
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This is one of an occasional series of reports to keep you informed about EPI’s work, the impact we have, and special events that might be of interest. We provide these updates periodically. If you’d rather not receive them, you can opt out by letting me know at dcooke@epi.org.
Support from friends like you enables EPI to provide up-to-the-minute analysis and data to support grassroots activists, shape the media narrative, and inform policymakers. For more information on EPI’s work, please visit our website at www.epi.org.
Thanks for being a friend and supporter of EPI.
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