The closures mark a new, unfortunate, phase in the slow reopening of society. But the reality is that for many people, particularly people of color, working remotely has never been an option. In June, the progressive Economic Policy Institute found that only one in six Latinx workers and one in five Black workers have been able to telework during the pandemic, compared to one in four white workers.
The disparities are even more severe along educational lines. In April, a third of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher were teleworking. Only one in twenty workers with a high school degree or less were able to do the same.
Mother Jones
August 2, 2021
Costs in Virginia were already high before the pandemic. In 2019, the Economic Policy Institute said that Virginia ranked No. 10 on the list of states with the most expensive child care. That year the average annual cost of infant care in Virginia was more than $14,000. For a 4-year-old, the annual cost was nearly $11,000.
The Virginian-Pilot
August 2, 2021
Within the American economy, hourly compensation and the productivity of workers have grown disproportionately. Between 1979-2019, the Economic Policy Institute found, employees have increased productivity by 72%, but their wages have only increased 17% in the last forty years.
Fast Company
August 2, 2021
In 2020, the data shows, the average C.E.O. of an S. & P. 500 company made $15.5 million—two hundred and ninety-nine times as much as the median-paid employee. Although we do not have directly comparable numbers going back in time, a forthcoming study by Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra of the Economic Policy Institute tracks the average C.E.O.’s pay and the average worker’s pay (and the ratio of one to the other) for the three hundred and fifty largest public companies in the United States. They estimate that, in 1978, the average C.E.O. made $1.7 million, adjusted for inflation, which was 31.4 times the average worker’s pay. Since that time, the share of all wages and salaries collected by the highest-earning one per cent of Americans has almost doubled, reaching its current level of about thirteen per cent. Roughly forty per cent of the people who make up that one per cent are executives, and their escalating compensation, Mishel and Kandra argue, has spilled over to other top managers in for-profit firms and large nonprofits alike. The power of example aside, today’s corporate executives frequently derive financial benefit from actions (outsourcing, downsizing, merging, defeating union drives) that directly or indirectly reduce pay and opportunity further down the line. In this way, too, executive pay has arguably been a significant driver, and not just a symptom, of rising inequality. That insight has led a growing number of local, state, and federal lawmakers to develop policy proposals that would reward or penalize companies based on their pay ratios.
The New Yorker
July 30, 2021
Cites EPI chart on retirement savings.
Washington Post
July 30, 2021
Her income was enough that her fiance could stay home with the two children they had at that point. Day care for an infant and a toddler in Dayton could cost around $800, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Washington Post
July 30, 2021
“Reducing Americans’ average work week is a key step towards achieving a better society,” the Economic Policy Institute, which endorsed the bill, said in Takano’s press release.
Futurism
July 30, 2021
Price increases are generally quite small relative to the increase in workers’ wages, wrote Ben Zipperer, an economist at Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, in an email. There are three major ways businesses respond to higher labor costs after raising wages, he says. First, companies receive some cost savings, as higher wages help retain workers, reducing the need to spend on recruiting and training them. Businesses also see some reduction in profits, and pass along some small price increases, he says.
Quartz
July 30, 2021
Thirty-nine U.S. corporations reaping over $120 billion in profits between 2018 and 2020—the first three years of the so-called “GOP tax scam”—paid no net federal income tax, or claimed refunds during that period, a report published Thursday by the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy revealed.
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Indeed, a 2019 report from the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Popular Democracy showed that the TCJA “delivered big benefits to the rich and corporations but nearly none for working families.”
Common Dreams
July 30, 2021
According to an Economic Policy Institute report, 92 percent of the 2.2 million domestic workers are women, and just over half are women of color. These women are the nannies, housekeepers and health aides who work inside homes and in assisted living homes, senior and childcare centers to provide caregiving and cleaning services.
Yahoo Finance
July 30, 2021