Transitioning to a new era

What’s happening

Happy New Year, from all of us at the Economic Policy Institute! 2020 was a year of unprecedented lows amid a public health crisis and millions of jobs lost. There were also silver linings—including high voter turnout, increased attention to long-entrenched disparities in our systems, and growing hope for change. In this issue of EPI News, we consider how we can move forward in 2021 toward recovery for workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Top charts of 2020
The COVID-19 health crisis. Economic instability. Record-breaking unemployment. Widening inequality. These are some of the devastating stories told through our charts in 2020. See the charts »
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Top charts of 2020
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What we’re talking about
Congressional relief bill is an important step, but more is needed
Congress’s new $900 billion relief bill is essential, but it also merely scratches the surface of what is needed to address the economic damage caused by the inadequate response to the pandemic. Read the statement from EPI’s Thea Lee »
Trump administration adds to the ways it has hurt workers

Under the wire, the Trump administration has finalized a regulation that will do further harm to workers: Employers can now take more than $700 million annually from tipped employees. Read the statement from EPI’s Heidi Shierholz »
How weak overtime protections contribute to inequality

“It is one of the things—worker protections, labor market institutions—that have eroded and contributed to rising inequality; to stagnant wages for middle-class workers,” EPI Director of Policy Heidi Shierholz said on Marketplace Morning Report. Listen to the radio show »
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What we’re reading
Sadie Alexander: Meet the First Black Woman Economist in the U.S. 
The reckoning on race in the field of economics began around 100 years ago. To put that in perspective, white women had only recently been granted the right to vote, and, in 1921, white people had burned Black Wall Street, in Tulsa, to the ground. Read more »
'Trying Like Heck' to Make Ends Meet: How 3 Families Are Weathering the Financial Fallout of COVID-19
After being furloughed in April, Dasja Reed has been called back to work twice this year. And twice, she’s been forced to say no. The administrative assistant with the City of New Orleans hasn’t been able to find a daycare spot for her two-year-old son. Read more »
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Looking toward recovery
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