EPI in the news

• Reckoning with reparations: How do I repay my ancestors’ slaves?

  Black Americans earn 75 cents on the dollar compared to white people, but that racial income gap pales compared to the wealth gap. According to the Economic Policy Institute, assets held by the median white family total about $171,000, versus $17,600 for the median black family.

  Cleveland.com | September 19, 2019
• Walmart To Go Union! Exxon To Abandon Fossil Fuels!

  CEOs have thrived under shareholder capitalism as never before. A report this August from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)—issued five days before the Business Roundtable’s pronunciamento—showed that CEO compensation has risen by 940 percent since 1978, a period that roughly coincides with the onset of conducting business to maximize shareholder value. During the same four decades, median worker compensation rose by a bare 12 percent.

  The American Prospect | September 19, 2019
• US healthcare is booming. So why do one in five workers live in poverty?

  And yet experts such as economist Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute warn that “wage growth is slower than we should expect in a fully healthy economy”.

  And while unemployment is at record lows with 6.1 million unemployed persons in July, the figures don’t speak to the number of people of working age who have dropped out of the workforce entirely because of low wages or the high cost of childcare. “Neither men nor women are back to their pre-recession participation levels,” says Gould.

  The Guardian | September 19, 2019
• “Payroll fraud” legislation introduced

  An extension of Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Payroll Fraud initiative announced earlier this spring (see message from 4/30/19 below), nearly 30 bills have been introduced in both the House and the Senate, seeking to punish employers who “cheat” employees out of their pay and benefits. The Attorney General and House and Senate Democrats are citing a report from the Economic Policy Institute that claims that “unscrupulous business stole an estimated $429 million in wages and overtime pay from Michigan workers between 2013 and 2015”.

  Michigan Manufacturers Association | September 19, 2019
• Opinion: You’re fooling yourself if you think you can retire early with kids

  Even if you can reduce your budget to $100,000 a year by home schooling your kids or getting lucky enough to send them to a good public school, amassing $1.25 million to $6.67 million is still a lot. According to a tri-annual Economic Policy Institute report, the median retirement balance for Americans between 56 and 61 is under $20,000.

  MarketWatch | September 19, 2019
• Some NYC small businesses sound alarm, say new legislation helping workers is crushing bottom line

  “Do low-wage workers, can they actually withstand such a gradual adjustment in wages?” said Ben Zipperer of the Economic Policy Institute.

  The Institute adds providing workers with a living wage contributes to a healthy economy because they buy things.

  CBS New York | September 19, 2019
• Philly airport workers are being forced to sign away their rights to take their employer to court

  Muhil’s experience isn’t unique. More than half of private-sector employees in the United States who are not represented by a union have signed arbitration agreements, according to a 2018 report from the Economic Policy Institute, and they’re more prevalent in low-wage workplaces, such as OTG’s airport bars and restaurants, as well as industries that employ more women and African Americans. There’s little data on how many unionized workers are covered by these agreements.

  The Philadelphia Inquirer | September 19, 2019

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