January, 25 2021, 11:00pm EDT

EPI Applauds the Introduction of the Raise the Wage Act
32 million U.S. workers would benefit from a $15 federal minimum wage.
WASHINGTON
Today, Congress introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2021, which will raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, indexes it to median wages to protect against future erosion, and phases out the harmful $2.13 subminimum wage for tipped workers.
This critical policy would lift wages for 32 million workers, the majority of whom work in essential and front-line industries. Raising the minimum wage helps narrow racial and gender pay gap--23% of workers who would benefit from a $15 minimum wage are Black or Latina women. A $15 minimum wage in 2025 would also raise pay for three in five workers with incomes below the federal poverty line.
The Raise the Wage Act of 2021 is not just moral policy, it is also good economics. A $15 minimum wage by 2025 would generate $107 billion in higher wages for workers, boosting annual earnings for the average affected year-round worker by $3,300. Since underpaid workers spend much of their extra earnings, this injection of wages will help stimulate the economy and spur greater business activity and job growth.
For over a decade, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour--the longest it has been unchanged since the minimum wage was established in 1938. Consequently, workers earning the current federal minimum wage are paid less per hour in real dollars than their counterparts were paid 50 years ago.
Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 will help reduce poverty, narrow racial and gender pay gaps, and stimulate the economy. Minimum wage workers deserve a raise. Now is the time for Congress to give it to them.
EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI's research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.
(202) 775-8810LATEST NEWS
FTC Probing 'Blockbuster' Exxon-Pioneer Merger
"The FTC is right to investigate Exxon's acquisition of Pioneer, which could raise prices at the pump and is aimed at keeping the U.S. reliant on fossil fuels," said one campaigner.
Dec 05, 2023
Amid outrage from climate campaigners and senators, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil's proposed takeover of Pioneer Natural Resources, a regulatory filing revealed Tuesday.
Pioneer disclosed the FTC's request for more information about the pending merger, which Exxon announced in October.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Tuesday: "Last month, I and 22 other senators urged the FTC to investigate Exxon's $60 billion proposed blockbuster merger with Pioneer. And today—they heeded my warning."
"Americans care a great deal about gas prices," Schumer stressed, "and if this merger were to go through it would most certainly raise gas prices for families across the country."
"This merger has all the hallmarks of harmful, anticompetitive effects. The FTC is right to investigate this merger to see if it would lead to higher gas prices or less competition," he added. "I look forward to following this investigation closely, and will encourage the FTC to block the deal if they find any antitrust laws are being violated."
Alex Witt of Climate Power, an advocacy group founded by the Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund, League of Conservation Voters, and Sierra Club, also welcomed the FTC's inquiry in comments to The Associated Press.
"Exxon publicly promised to reduce emissions, yet subsequently spent $60 billion acquiring another fossil fuel company—doubling down on their commitment to oil and gas and putting profits over people," Witt said. "The FTC is right to investigate Exxon's acquisition of Pioneer, which could raise prices at the pump and is aimed at keeping the U.S. reliant on fossil fuels."
A CAP report highlighted Tuesday that in hopes of continuing to profit off of the destruction of the planet, the fossil fuel industry is "undermining democratic functions to stem the tide of climate action" around the world.
That report and the heightened scrutiny of the possible merger come during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), where attendees are considering scientists' warnings that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out to prevent more devastating global heating.
"This deal shows that Exxon is doubling down on fossil fuels and has no intention of moving towards clean energy," Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media argued earlier this year. "Even after the hottest summer on record, Exxon is hellbent on driving the thermostat even higher."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Big Oil Stifling Democracy to Keep Burning Fossil Fuels
"The multinational $4 trillion fossil fuel industry has not only corrupted citizens' understanding of the climate crisis but also contributed to the erosion of democracy around the world."
Dec 05, 2023
As more people around the world demand an end to the fossil fuel era in the face of a worsening planetary emergency, Big Oil is "undermining democratic functions to stem the tide of climate action," a report published Tuesday revealed.
"Through a wide array of tactics, the multinational $4 trillion fossil fuel industry has not only corrupted citizens' understanding of the climate crisis but also contributed to the erosion of democracy around the world," the Center for American Progress (CAP) said in a new analysis.
CAP's Chris Martinez, Laura Kilbury, and Joel Martinez examined "what these tactics look like in practice and how they work against democratic systems to stifle climate action."
According to the authors, the three main democracy-destroying tactics are:
- Polluting democratic societies' information ecosystems with deception and false climate solutions;
- Using massive financial and lobbying influence over policymakers to defeat climate action and serve industry interests; and
- Directly undermining democratic rights and freedoms.
The fossil fuel industry is "stifling democratic rights through lawsuits, anti-protest laws, and voter suppression," the report states. Meanwhile, Big Oil greenwashes its harmful practices through direct advertising and via lobby groups like the American Petroleum Institute, which "regularly publicizes its member companies' investments in renewable energy and carbon reduction technologies."
"On closer inspection, however, industry's declared efforts to fight climate change fall woefully short, with oil and gas companies often devoting more attention to creating the appearance of working on climate solutions than actually developing them," the analysis contends.
Big Oil also uses the tactic of "astroturfing," or creating the appearance of grassroots support for policies and practices that are beneficial to the industry but harm the climate by perpetuating the fossil fuel era.
"The oil and gas industry's strategy is clear: Manipulate the levers of power to obstruct any climate policies that may reduce the world's reliance on fossil fuels," Martinez, CAP's associate director for domestic climate, said in a statement. "If left unchecked, these tactics stifle democratic rights, making governments more responsive to corporations than their own citizens."
The CAP analysis comes as a record 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists flood the floors of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP28, in Dubai, peddling influence and false climate solutions like so-called "abated" emissions, biofuels, and hydrogen.
"In the case of the [United Arab Emirates'] COP28 presidency, the industry capture of these spaces is complete, with a state-backed fossil fuel company threatening to interfere with multilateral climate progress at the highest and most consequential level," the report states, referring to summit president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who is also the CEO of the UAE's national oil firm—and who has reportedly been using the run-up to the conference to pursue new fossil fuel deals.
"As warning lights of democratic backsliding strobe across the world and endanger critical efforts to address the climate crisis," the analysis adds, "the twin threat of the fossil fuel industry's attacks on climate action and the democratic functions necessary to take that action must not be ignored."
Keep ReadingShow Less
13 Dems Oppose Resolution Conflating Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism
"This extreme and cynical Republican resolution does nothing to combat antisemitism," said Rep. Ilhan Omar, stressing the importance of "legitimate criticism" of the Israeli government and its war on Gaza.
Dec 05, 2023
As Israel continued to wage what critics are calling a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, just 13 U.S. House Democrats and one Republican on Tuesday voted against a GOP resolution that conflates anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
House Resolution 894 passed with support from 95 Democrats and 216 Republicans, including its sponsors, Reps. David Kustoff (Tenn.) and Max Miller (Ohio), who are both Jewish. Almost as many Democrats—92—voted present.
The resolution, which embraces the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's controversial working definition of antisemitism, was widely condemned by progressive and Jewish groups this week ahead of the vote.
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie (Ky.) joined the 13 Democrats who opposed H.Res. 894: Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Gerry Connolly (Va.), Jesús "Chuy" GarcÃa (Ill.), Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.).
"This extreme and cynical Republican resolution does nothing to combat antisemitism, relies on a definition that conflates criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism, paints critics of the Israeli government as antisemites, and falsely states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism," Omar said in a statement about her vote. "We must stand against any attempt to define legitimate criticism of this war and the government perpetrating it as antisemitism."
According to The Hill, Bowman said after the vote that while he "strongly condemn[s] antisemitism and hate in all of its forms," he voted against H.Res. 894 because "it fuels division and violence, conflates criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism, and ignores one of the greatest threats to the Jewish community, white nationalism."
Bowman and Omar are among the House progressives facing serious primary challenges for the next cycle, in part because of their criticism of the Israeli government and its war on Gaza that has killed nearly 16,000 Palestinians in under two months.
They joined with Bush, Lee, Massie, Ocasio-Cortez, Ramirez, Tlaib, and Reps. André Carson (D-Ind.) and Al Green (D-Texas) in October to oppose a bipartisan resolution, which declared that the House unconditionally "stands with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists," and did not mention Palestinian suffering.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular