Ben Zipperer
@benzipperer.org
📤 8181
📥 768
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Economist at
@epi.org
https://www.epi.org/people/ben-zipperer/
reposted by
Ben Zipperer
Roosevelt Institute
about 24 hours ago
New 📰: Patrick Oakford explores how stronger labor standards are foundational to the economic security of working families—raising the federal minimum wage to $20/hr by 2030, establishing just cause protections, and strengthening enforcement against wage theft. 🧵
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Federal Employment Standards as the Foundation of Economic Security: Revisiting Minimum Wage, Just Cause, and Tools to Combat Wage Theft
Patrick Oakford proposes raising the minimum wage to 2/3 of median earnings ($20 per hour by 2030), implementing just-cause protections, and expanding wage theft enforcement to restore economic securi...
https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/federal-employment-standards-revisiting-minimum-wage/?utm_campaign=institute20260521&utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_content=fedminimumwage
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Ben Zipperer
Economic Policy Institute
about 22 hours ago
How high could policymakers set a national minimum wage? NEW report from
@benzipperer.org
proposes an evidence-backed benchmark that would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers without the job losses critics typically predict. 1/3
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Setting high standards for a federal minimum wage: Raising the wage to two-thirds of the national median wage would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers
Key takeaways: The federal minimum wage is at its lowest real value in 77 years. Frozen at $7.25 since 2009, the federal minimum wage has lost 30% of its purchasing power during this 17-year freeze. S...
https://www.epi.org/publication/setting-high-standards-for-a-federal-minimum-wage-raising-the-wage-to-two-thirds-of-the-national-median-wage-would-lift-pay-for-nearly-40-million-workers/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social
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More from the we-hate-markets wing of US politics: the mandatory "intellectual freedom" enrollment edition
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about 22 hours ago
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Ben Zipperer
Oklahoma Policy Institute
3 days ago
OK Policy's Carly Putnam will be speaking at this panel on Thursday (noon, CST) to talk about the work being done in Oklahoma to address raising the minimum wage. Register today!
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
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Ben Zipperer
Michael Sainato
2 days ago
US employers spend over $1.5 billion annually to fight their workers' unionization efforts
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
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US employers spend more than $1.5bn a year to fight labor unions, report finds
Critics say employers spend money hiring union-avoidance consultants and lawyers while not investing in workers
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/20/how-much-companies-spend-fight-unions
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whomst among us hasn't used starch to heat up some starch
1 day ago
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Ben Zipperer
Bobby Kogan
2 days ago
Do we have a spending problem? I argue no. Short đź§µ Here's a graph of all program spending EXCEPT Social Security and Medicare from 1950-present (with projections through 2056). It's already way below average, moving towards historic lows. So clearly that part of the govt isn't a "problem."
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ooof, two absolutely beautiful goals:
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1 day ago
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Adam Sawyer
1 day ago
Given what we know about the demographics of the administration's base, this is a remarkable finding from
@elizabethacox.bsky.social
and
@chloeneast.bsky.social
.
www.nber.org/papers/w35129
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Ben Zipperer
Kevin Rinz
4 days ago
When the labor market looks wobbly, people often look to subgroup unemployment rates (eg for non-white or young workers) for signs of what’s to come, but do they actually predict changes in the overall UR? I have a new short piece on this out today for
@clevelandfed.bsky.social
.
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Arin Dube
5 days ago
Here is a figure showing the various OECD countries minimum wages as a ratio of median. Average around 60%. But many at or above 2/3. Then there is an outlier, the US.
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Staggered adoption breaks TWFE event studies. Already-treated units act as controls for later cohorts, so pre-trend violations outside the window leak into the lags, while the leads appear flat
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6 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
J. Mijin Cha
8 days ago
This government's whole approach is to funnel public money to the private sector. Of course other administrations did too, but never on this level. Robbing the public to make oligarchs even richer.
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jamelle
8 days ago
this truly is the thing that makes the united states exceptional, and right wingers hate it so much they want to destroy it
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One more reason why unemployment benefit take-up rates are so low, from the former head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
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8 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
Erika McEntarfer
10 days ago
I filed for unemployment for the first time when I was fired last year, and never got past MD's broken identity-verification system. I was the most famous fired person in America at the time, and a 20-year career bureaucrat, but I found another job before I ever successfully filed a UI claim.
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somewhere, an
#rstats
and linux-using ornithologist is having a very bad day
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8 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
Arin Dube
8 days ago
My op-ed in the Boston Globe today. Gifted link below:
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How to save the middle class - The Boston Globe
An answer to one of the most vexing challenges of our time.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/14/opinion/middle-class-wage-standard-health/?s_campaign=8315:varf
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Ben Zipperer
Florian Oswald
9 days ago
shoutout to
@hannahrecht.bsky.social
for a fantastic R package. This is a great way to get US census data:
github.com/hrecht/censu...
#EconSky
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GitHub - hrecht/censusapi: R package to retrieve U.S. Census data and metadata via API
R package to retrieve U.S. Census data and metadata via API - hrecht/censusapi
https://github.com/hrecht/censusapi
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so helpful
9 days ago
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Remarkable that California's fast-food minimum wage had no effect on jobs Given its relatively high "bite" and partial coverage (large chains only), employers and consumers could have shifted toward lower-wage alternatives, but it appears they didn't
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10 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
Elise Gould
10 days ago
Year over year real hourly wages fell for the first time in three years. The CPI grew 3.8% in April, beating out nominal wage growth and leading to a 0.2% fall in real wages. Accelerating price inflation is the real culprit but decelerating nominal wage growth indicates a weakening labor market.
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Thanks to Trump's war with Iran, real wages fell for two straight months and are now lower than they were a year ago
10 days ago
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10 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
Chris Geidner
11 days ago
In Louisiana and likely Alabama, actual, cast votes are going to be tossed out as officials speed ahead with new (or previously enjoined) maps. This is such an extreme use case for the Purcell principle that the court ignoring it here signifies that it was always a made-up toy, not law.
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Ben Zipperer
Chloe N East (she/her)
11 days ago
Directed me to a pregnancy center in my area that discourages abortion, shames people who have gotten an abortion, and includes bible quotes. Did not list as options planned parenthood or any other clinic that performs abortion in my area.
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De Las Souls
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11 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
Aggressive immigration enforcement leads to more crime and fewer reports to police
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11 days ago
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Even if passed, this will do nothing to lower the price at the pump. Cutting taxes on a good whose supply can't expand just lets sellers pocket the savings. Demand is still chasing the same fixed supply.
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11 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
pistachio classic™️
11 days ago
GOOOOOOOOOD MORNING! It’s Period Poverty Awareness Week, can I have some money please?
secure.givelively.org/donate/georg...
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Aggressive immigration enforcement leads to more crime and fewer reports to police
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11 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
jamelle
13 days ago
the most anti free speech administration in this country’s history
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very dirty martini
13 days ago
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Has any single presidential action ever done more immediate damage to real wages?
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13 days ago
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Should've run; while you had the chance
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14 days ago
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shake shake shake your amaro
14 days ago
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Bad news for US workers: with nominal wage growth slowing and oil prices rising, real wages all but guaranteed to decline.
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14 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
Arin Dube
14 days ago
This is a real problem which should concern many of you, if you put any weight on inequality. There are issues around measuring the labor share. One is the role of depreciation. The net-of-depreication labor share is higher. But it also shows sharp decline post 2000.
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Ben Zipperer
Jordan Matsudaira
15 days ago
DC friends - don’t miss this!
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Ben Zipperer
Matt Barnum
15 days ago
New: Since DOGE cut the statistical arm of the Education Department, basic facts about American schools are no longer readily available. Some of these data points can be found elsewhere but are now harder to track down. Others simply don't exist anymore.
www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/07/e...
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the rich are really not sending their best messenger
16 days ago
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teacher appreciation platter
16 days ago
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Unanticipated e-bike benefit: cycling through headwinds.
17 days ago
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for the targets
#rstats
fans: highly recommend some targets-specific keybindings for Positron/VSCode
17 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
Chloe N East (she/her)
18 days ago
On average, in areas that experienced an extra 1,200 ICE arrests, there are 7,500 fewer undocumented immigrants working in that area. Much larger chilling effects than prior enforcement. And, for every lost 6 undocumented workers, there is a loss of 1 job for a US-born worker.
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Ben Zipperer
James Medlock
18 days ago
I've been saying we need a progressive DOGE that actually focuses on making government work well rather than undermining it. But we need a better name. So how about DOPE: the Department of Public Excellence.
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So far Brazil's gender pay gap hasn't budged since the country began requiring large companies to publish their pay gaps by occupation
18 days ago
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Ben Zipperer
Arin Dube
18 days ago
DC friends — mark your calendars. On 5/19,
@groundwork.bsky.social
and
@epi.org
are hosting a book talk & happy hour to celebrate the release of my new book, The Wage Standard: What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It. Free book! Free drinks! RSVP now👇
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Ben Zipperer
Hadley Wickham
18 days ago
I'd love to learn more about how y'all are using AI for data science, so I've set up some times where you can chat with me:
scheduler.zoom.us/hadley-wickh...
. I'm interested in it all, whether it's your struggles, your successes, or what you're still trying to get your head around.
#rstats
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Ben Zipperer
Andrew Foote
18 days ago
New this morning: "Value of Reliable Statistics" from Bloom, Groshen, Hobbs and Strain. Kicker quote: "Our baseline estimate implies that preserving trust in the integrity and quality of official statistics generates economic benefits of about $25 for every $1 spent on the agency’s budget."
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The Value of Reliable Statistics
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
https://www.nber.org/papers/w35135?utm_campaign=ntwh&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntwg2
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