Despite today’s low unemployment rate, economic prosperity is still not reaching many working people.

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Friend,

Today, we celebrate the working people who came before us who successfully fought for a federal minimum wage, overtime pay and collective bargaining rights. Let’s honor their sacrifice by building on their achievements.

Together, it’s up to us to ensure broadly shared economic prosperity for current and future generations.

Last week, leading up to Labor Day weekend, EPI released a series of essays titled How well is the American economy working for working people? ([link removed])

This report makes clear that despite an unemployment rate below 4%, wage growth continues to elude the vast majority of working families. This is a result of a decades-long attack on labor unions, and trickledown policies that put corporate profits and CEO pay ahead of the rights and wages of working people.

Read Thea’s email below, then, pitch in $50 or more today to receive an EPI tote bag. Your donation is critical to powering the research and advocacy behind our movement for progressive economic change. ([link removed])

In this series of essays, EPI’s Elise Gould and Valerie Wilson explore ([link removed]) why, across demographics, the real median wage growth of the last five years is dramatically lower than the wage gains made between 1996 – 2000.

EPI’s Josh Bivens explains ([link removed]) how the political decisions of the Trump administration is holding back wage growth.

EPI Policy Director and former Chief economist at the Department of Labor under President Obama, Heidi Shierholz discusses ([link removed]) the decades-long attack on labor unions.

And so much more! ([link removed])

None of this critical movement-leading research would be possible without the generous support of thousands of grassroots supporters.

Donate $50 or more today to receive an EPI tote bag and power our movement for progressive economic change. ([link removed])
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Thank you for all that you do to protect and expand the rights and wages of all working people.

John Schmitt
Vice President, Economic Policy Institute
Friend,

This Labor Day, we ask the question: How well is the American economy working for working people? ([link removed])

The above link provides essays from EPI economists on issues ranging from wage growth to collective bargaining power to the policy decisions being made by Congress and the White House.

Whether it’s the federal minimum wage that’s lost 31% of its value over the last 50 years, or attacks on labor unions vastly reducing the share of workers covered by a union contract, the policy decisions coming out of Washington have not resulted in broadly shared economic growth.

This Labor Day weekend, invest in the research that’s powering our movement for progressive economic change. Donate $50 or more to receive an EPI tote bag and help raise the wages of all working people. ([link removed])
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The chart below is a stark reminder of how wages and compensation have not kept pace with the productivity gains of the last 30 years:
And this chart shows a massive rise in income inequality, directly correlating to attacks on collective bargaining rights:
As EPI’s Heidi Shierholz writes:

“Impeding union representation has been a primary goal of corporate interests in recent decades, and these interests have convinced conservative policymakers to attack collective bargaining through legislation, executive rulemaking, and the courts.”

Indeed, the evidence is clear that President Trump and conservatives in Congress have expended no real effort in helping generate wage growth for most workers, but have done plenty that will make it harder for workers to see wage gains in the future. Here are just a few anti-worker policies Trump was able to push through a Republican-controlled Congress in 2017 and 2018:

1) Enacting tax cuts that overwhelmingly favor the wealthy over the average worker.
2) Taking billions out of workers’ pockets by weakening or abandoning regulations that protect their pay.
3) Blocking workers from access to the courts by allowing mandatory arbitration clauses in employment contracts.
4) Pushing immigration policies that hurt all workers.
5) Rolling back regulations that protect worker pay and safety.

With your support, we can turn this around and advance policy solutions that protect the rights and wages of all working people. Pitch in $50 or more today to receive an EPI tote bag and power our movement for progressive economic change. ([link removed])

Thank you,

Thea Lee
President, Economic Policy Institute
DONATE TO EPI ([link removed])

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