Media clips

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• Inflation is still voters’ top concern. We took a look at what Fetterman and Oz say they would do.

  “In terms of things that would lower prices on store shelves, it’s pretty tough to act that quickly,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

  Philadelphia Inquirer October 19, 2022
• Industrial Policy: Now Comes the Hard Part

  A third element was a long-overdue ideological shift in the Democratic Party, especially its presidential wing. Before Biden, economic advisers to Democratic presidents were free-traders, counseling that the nature and location of production was the proper business of the market, not the state. With Biden, voices long in the wilderness on industrial targeting, such as the labor movement, the Roosevelt Institute, and the Economic Policy Institute, have had the heady experience of actually influencing and making policy.

  American Prospect October 19, 2022
• Employers Are Fearing A Hard Truth About Quiet Quitting

  Bottom line: Employers Could Be Quitting On Workers

  There is a truth behind the idea of “quiet quitting,” but the truth is that employers are quitting on workers. The evidence points in the direction of workers feeling increased pressure and working too much instead of too little. The Economic Policy Institute has argued that “quiet fleecing” would be a better term.

  Forbes October 19, 2022
• Must be nice to be a CEO

  CEO pay rose more than 11% in 2021, a new record, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute; JOSH BIVENS, EPI Director of Research, reports.

  Your Rights at Work October 14, 2022
• What’s at Stake in the 2022 Midterm Elections

  As the country deals with inflation and a looming recession, the economy is top of mind for Americans in the 2022 midterm elections. However, when researching candidates, it’s important to remember that policy makers did not cause inflation. Inflation was caused by global and public health issues, like supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19, port shutdowns, a shift of spending from services to goods, and the war in Ukraine. Knowing this, Economic Policy Institute(opens in new tab) President Heidi Shierholz advises voters to elect candidates based on their willingness to boost living standards and eliminate inequalities, which directly impacts the economy. 

  Marie Claire October 14, 2022
• Lowe’s Workers in New Orleans Petition to Form Company’s First-Ever Union

  Data shows that workers at Lowe’s Home Improvement stores are often paid low wages. According to the Economic Policy Institute, about half of Lowe’s workers are paid less than $15 an hour. Other research has found that, in 2020, the median salary for full time retail workers at the chain was a mere $24,000, or only about $11.50 an hour.

  Truthout October 14, 2022
• How the gig economy could change as the nature of work evolves

  A survey from the Economic Policy Institute from June of this year reported that about 1 in 7 gig workers said they earned less than the hourly federal minimum wage, and about 1 in 5 have gone hungry because they didn’t make enough money to eat regularly.

  Marketplace October 14, 2022
• 6 Risks You Face If You Retire in a Recession

  The problem is that both the Great Recession and the pandemic showed that employment outcomes tend to be much worse for older employees — particularly part-time workers — during economic downturns. Steep job losses and high unemployment are hallmarks of recessions, and according to reports from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) and the Economic Policy Institute, older part-time workers are often the first to lose their jobs when businesses cut back during lean times.

  Nasdaq October 14, 2022
• Poll: Many pessimistic about improving standard of living

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, the federal minimum wage in 2021 was worth 34% less than in 1968, when its purchasing power peaked.

  Click on Detroit October 14, 2022
• CEO Pay Has Soared by Nearly 1,500% Since 1978, While Workers Have Been Left Behind

  Between 1978 and 2021, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), CEO compensation at the 350 largest publicly traded U.S. companies rose by an inflation-adjusted 1,460%, far outstripping the 18.1% pay increase that the nation’s typical worker saw during that period.

  The trend of soaring CEO pay has continued during the coronavirus pandemic, which caused mass economic chaos and job loss among ordinary workers. EPI found that ​“while millions lost jobs in the first year of the pandemic and suffered real wage declines due to inflation in the second year, CEOs’ realized compensation jumped 30.3% between 2019 and 2021.”

  “Typical worker compensation among those who remained employed rose 3.9% over the same time span,” note EPI’s Josh Bivens and Jori Kandra, the authors of the new report.

  Bivens and Kandra write in their new analysis that the chief executive pay surge in recent decades is not the ​“result of a competitive market for talent but rather reflect[s] the power of CEOs to extract concessions.”

  In 2021, the CEOs of top U.S. companies raked in nearly 400 times more pay than the typical worker.

  “Some observers argue that exorbitant CEO compensation is merely a symbolic issue, with no consequences for the vast majority of workers,” Bivens and Kandra note. ​“However, the escalation of CEO compensation, and of executive compensation more generally, has fueled the growth of top 1% and top 0.1% incomes, generating widespread inequality.”

  Bivens and Kandra write in their new analysis that the chief executive pay surge in recent decades is not the ​“result of a competitive market for talent but rather reflect[s] the power of CEOs to extract concessions.”

  In 2021, the CEOs of top U.S. companies raked in nearly 400 times more pay than the typical worker.

  “Some observers argue that exorbitant CEO compensation is merely a symbolic issue, with no consequences for the vast majority of workers,” Bivens and Kandra note. ​“However, the escalation of CEO compensation, and of executive compensation more generally, has fueled the growth of top 1% and top 0.1% incomes, generating widespread inequality.”

  “Another option,” Bivens and Kandra write, ​“is to set corporate tax rates higher for firms that have higher ratios of CEO-to-worker compensation,” an idea proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in his 2021 Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act.

  In These Times October 14, 2022
• The coalition argues a flat tax is fundamentally unfair in a state with a high wealth gap. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Massachusetts has the sixth highest income gap of any state.

  David Cooper, the director of the economic analysis and research network at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, contends that when wage laws are changed to a single-tier system, business owners can have the assurance that “every single person they compete with is making the same exact adjustment,” reducing the specter of a competitive disadvantage.

  “This is not costless,” Mr. Cooper said. “But for a long time, we haven’t been internalizing the costs of paying workers less than they can live on.”

  New York Times October 14, 2022
• What to know about Question 1, which asks voters if Mass.’ top earners should pay higher taxes

  The coalition argues a flat tax is fundamentally unfair in a state with a high wealth gap. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Massachusetts has the sixth highest income gap of any state.

  WBUR October 14, 2022
• Maryland School Districts Navigate Teacher Shortage

  Economic Policy Institute research said in 1979, teachers made 7% less than those peers, but this year, the pay gap has grown to 23%, a record high.

  Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, citing 300,000 public education vacancies nationwide, said the issue boils down to two factors.

  “What’s happening is that it’s becoming more and more difficult to find teachers, and other education personnel, who will take those jobs under current working conditions and at current wages,” Shierholz explained.

  Public News Service October 14, 2022
• Social Security benefits will jump next year. Here’s why.

  It’s counterintuitive, but higher inflation is actually good for the Social Security Trust Fund, said Monique Morrissey, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  When prices rise while the number of Social Security recipients and the benefits paid to them increase, it would seem like a bad thing for the trust fund. But the opposite is true, Morrissey said, because one of the main drivers of inflation is rising wages. Since wages and COLAs are increasing, more money is taxable, both from payroll taxes and some of the increased Social Security benefits.

  “Generally speaking, the actuaries will say it’s a wash,” Morrissey said, “but to the extent that it has an impact, it’s a positive one.”

   
  The Washington Post October 14, 2022
• What is inflation? Understanding why prices rise, what causes it and who it hurts most.

  Inflation is a “generalized rise in prices,” said Josh Bivens, the director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. For example, goods like gas, rent or food can be impacted by inflation. 

  USA Today October 14, 2022
• Short-term rentals ‘gobbled up’ homes, worsening housing supply, Philly Fed president says. But Airbnb pushes back, saying it’s too easy an explanation.

  But when Airbnbs pop up in residential neighborhoods, that hits housing supply as it takes away properties from the long-term residential market into the short-term travel market, a 2019 report from the Economic Policy Institute said. 

  MarketWatch October 14, 2022
• Where Is the Minimum Wage Going Up in 2023?

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, 30 of America’s 50 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted minimum wages that are higher than the federal standard. That leaves 20 where employers are still allowed to pay their workers as little as $7.25 an hour. Five of them — Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee — have no minimum wage at all. Two others — Georgia and Wyoming — still have their minimum wages set at $5.15 an hour. In all seven of those states, the federal threshold of $7.25 applies.

  Yahoo Finance October 14, 2022
• Cheers for Social Security’s Cost-of-Living Adjustment

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, the median savings of American workers, including plans such as 401(k)s, was just $60,000. For the 40 percent of Americans aged 60–69 who even have a 401(k), the median holding is about $82,000. But that is enough for maybe six or seven years, while the average life expectancy for a 65-year-old is 18.2 years for men and just under 20 years for women.

  American Prospect October 14, 2022
• Ron Johnson Suggests That Federal Minimum Wage Should Be Eliminated

  Notably, one in seven gig workers, or people working for companies like Uber and DoorDash, are making less than the federal minimum wage, the Economic Policy Institute found earlier this year. Corporations are allowed to exploit the fact that such workers aren’t classified as employees in order to not guarantee a minimum wage or provide benefits. The fact that these jobs exist and are still staffed is evidence that Johnson’s bad faith claim that wages would rise if there were fewer wage regulations is blatantly untrue.

  Truthout October 14, 2022
• Here’s what a new Biden administration labor proposal would mean for independent contractors

  Ten states apply that test to wage and hour benefits, though some only for workers in certain industries such as construction and landscaping, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  CNBC October 14, 2022
• Uber, Lyft stock decimated as US aims to classify gig workers as staff

  A study published in June by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, found, “about 1 in 7 gig workers (14 percent) earned less than the federal minimum wage on an hourly basis and more than a quarter (29 percent) earned less than the state minimum wage.”

  The Register October 14, 2022
• Before the Fed’s Monetary Policy Was Ultra-Tight, It Was Ultra-Loose

  The rest is misery. Citing the research database RealtyTrac, Prins notes that foreclosures leapt 21 percent in 2009, affecting nearly three million households. As many as 3.7 million slid below the poverty line in 2009, per the Economic Policy Institute, while one in five children were living in poverty. The banks paid their fines and emerged largely unscathed. By 2014, Prins observes, their stock index was up 280 percent from a market low five years earlier.

  Jacobin October 14, 2022
• The executive-worker pay gap keeps getting bigger as CEOs rake in an average $27.8 million a year

  Top executives earned 399 times that of the typical worker in 2021, according to a new reprot from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). PAYWALL

  Fortune October 14, 2022
• 7 Ways 5,000 Districts & Charter Networks Are Spending Relief Funds on Teachers

  Pay scales need to rise in many school districts. Teachers earned an estimated average of just $66,397 in the 2021-22 school year, while the Economic Policy Institute recently reported that teachers’ average weekly inflation-adjusted pay has increased by just $29 since 1996, compared with $445 per week for other college graduates. In recent years, several governors have devoted state dollars to hikes in teachers pay, influenced in part by the Red-for-Ed rallies that teachers staged at many statehouses just before the pandemic began.

  The 74 October 14, 2022
• Nevada treasurer seeks to address generational poverty with baby bonds

  A 2018 report from the progressive nonprofit Economic Policy Institute ranked Nevada fourth in the nation for the most unequal income distribution, which increased briskly since 2007. While the nation was recovering from the Great Recession between 2009 and 2015, Nevada’s top 1 percent captured most of the income growth, snagging 81 percent from the pie, according to the report from the Economic Policy Institute.

  Nevada Independent October 14, 2022
• America’s Rich Dominate the Ranks of Our World’s Wealthiest. Why?

  The Economic Policy Institute has emerged over recent years as America’s most perceptive source of CEO pay data, and analysts from the Institute earlier this week released their latest yearly update. The headline stat from this new EPI analysis: Corporate chiefs at the 350 top American firms that trade on the stock market last year realized an average $27.8 million in compensation, an 11.1-percent increase over their previous year’s pay and a record 399 times more than the take-home of typical American workers.

  Counter Punch October 14, 2022
• For millennials, the cost of homes and other milestones just keep rising out of reach

  Nguyen: So, more bad news. Our wages have generally stagnated since the 1970s. The Economic Policy Institute has found that there’s a gap between productivity and how much we’re getting paid. Productivity has risen more than three times as fast as hourly pay since the ‘70s. 

  And when it comes to average weekly earnings, workers in production and nonsupervisory roles earned more than $1,000 back in August of ‘72. That’s adjusted for inflation. But in August of this year, it was less than that. Those workers were earning under $940 a week. 

   
  Marketplace October 14, 2022
• Opinion

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, RTW laws aim to hamstring unions’ ability to help employees bargain with their employers for better wages, benefits and working conditions. Research shows that historically, wages for union workers average about 11% more than those of their non-union counterparts. Non-union workers in RTW states generally have fewer benefits as well.       

  The Tennessean October 14, 2022
• Hispanic unemployment rate falls sharply in September, but fewer workers join labor force

  To be sure, Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy, said individuals should hold off on drawing firm conclusions from one month of data.

  luctuations are common in monthly reports and require several consecutive periods of a similar move before one can deduce a trend.

  “It’s still hard to understand whether we’re just seeing volatility in the series because it’s a smaller sample size,” Wilson said.

  CNBC October 14, 2022
• Commentary: The government is actually doing a good job

  That’s according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Even as the country suffered through a pandemic, global supply chain disruptions and rising inflation, child poverty rates declined to the lowest on record. As the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded, much of this can be attributed to last year’s expansion of the Child Tax Credit.

  To be sure, some states and localities have spent relief funds in ways that do not actually improve the lives of average Americans. At least 21 states used the money to replenish unemployment insurance funding, which — as the Economic Policy Institute notes — has little impact on economic growth and effectively amounts to a tax cut for corporations. Some local governments are even using funding to build and expand jails and prisons, rather than invest in education, affordable housing, job programs or other programs that address the root causes of crime.

  Finger Lakes Times October 14, 2022