FYI: Full-time retail workers in New York City are making less than they were a decade ago and are largely dependent upon public assistance for health care and other life basics, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Released in time for the holiday shopping season, EPI’s report is meant to promote unionization among local retail workers. In 1989, EPI says, local retail workers without a college degree made an average of $11.18 an hour; today they make $10.53. Two thirds of those working full time don’t get health benefits, and the city spends $783 million a year on a range of public benefits for full time retail workers who aren’t making enough to survive on their own. [12/16/03]