Media clips

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• Corporations aren’t paying fair share in taxes according to an Economic Policy Institute report

  You see the money come out of every paycheck that pays your income taxes, but a nationwide oversight agency is reporting that corporations often aren’t paying their fair share.

  The Economic Policy Institute, along with Illinois, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, and Colorado are calling for reforms in their state governments to get corporations, especially large ones like Amazon and Comcast, to pay their share of the taxes.

  Nationwide, the institute argued the lack of corporate tax income created a revenue shortfall of $43 to $57 billion between 1989 and 2017.

  “Tax revenues are critical to the ability of state and local governments to provide basic services to their residents. However, in recent decades state and local policymakers have consistently allowed corporations to reduce their share of taxes,” report author and EPI Director of Research Josh Bivens said. “These policy decisions should be reversed to ensure profitable businesses pay their fair share in taxes.”

  HOI-TV (Illinois) April 15, 2022
• I Worked My Ass Off for the Kardashian-Jenner Apps. I Couldn’t Afford Gas.

  This disparity between worker output and income is in line with a nationwide trend. Between 1979 and 2019, worker productivity grew 59.7 percent, but wages increased only 15.8 percent. Instead of going towards worker paychecks, the value of their increased productivity flowed up the corporate ladder to executive salaries, stock options, and bonuses. In 1978, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the ratio of CEO-to-worker wages was 31-to-1; as of 2020, it’s 351-to-1. That’s a 1,322 percent increase for CEO pay in 42 years.

  VICE April 15, 2022
• NY Farmworker Overtime Laws Are Changing, But Only at a Snail’s Pace

  The example of California suggests such a conservative approach is not necessary.  After overtime was expanded, California actually saw a small increase in the number of agricultural establishments, according to research by Daniel Costa, of the Economic Policy Institute.

  In sum, “There are no smoking guns out there showing that [overtime] will (or is) destroying the industry in any way,” Costa told me.

  The Indypendent April 15, 2022
• Two Cities Pay Teachers Based on Their Quality. Does It Work?

  When most people think of measuring teacher quality, they likely think of test scores. But expert groups, including the Economic Policy Institute, have warned against putting too much weight on test scores when evaluating teachers. D.C.’s IMPACT model “critically keyed in on something that teachers actually control, which is the character of their day-to-day practice in the classroom,” Dee says.

  EdSurge April 15, 2022
• One Way to Get a Higher Social Security Payout: Use Your Savings

  But the idea of the 401(k) bridge has been slow to catch on, even among the large number of people who decided during the pandemic to retire early. One reason is that it’s so new; the generation for which the 401(k) replaced the pension that most workers once enjoyed but barely 1 in 5 still get is only now entering retirement, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Retirement account savings overtook pension fund assets in 2012, the institute reports.

   
  AARP April 15, 2022
• What Amazon and Starbucks Don’t Let Us Know

  Terri Gerstein is the director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program and a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.

  The American Prospect April 15, 2022
• Sen. Port, AG Ellison Host Roundtable Focused On Child Care Costs, Economic Security Of Women

  A study from the Economic Policy Institute found that Minnesota ranks fourth in the nation for most expensive child care. The average annual cost of sending an infant to a daycare center was over $16,000 a year – and that was in 2019.

  CBS Minnesota April 15, 2022
• Companies like Amazon spend millions on anti-union efforts. Where’s that money going?

  Employers spend about $340 million a year on consultants to prevent union elections, according to a 2019 report from the Economic Policy Institute.  

  Marketplace April 15, 2022
• Pressure Mounts on Fed as Inflation Reaches Highest Rate Since 1981

  But the reduction in supply was met with increased demand as Americans started purchasing durable goods to replace the services they used prior to the pandemic, said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute.

  CNET April 15, 2022
• Hundreds rally in Boston to push for affordable early education and child care

  The Economic Policy Institute reports the average cost for infant child care in the state is nearly $21,000 a year. That’s the second highest mark in the country.

  7 News Boston April 15, 2022