Media clips

---

• 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
• 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
• 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
• Are You Rich? How the Wealthy Are Defined

  Among the top 5% of earners, the average annual wage was $342,987 in 2020, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank; among the top 1%, the average income was $823,763. Meanwhile, the average income in the U.S. in 2020 was $59,900.

   
  US News and World Report April 14, 2022
• Confounding and confusing events

   Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute was quoted as saying, “Inflation is really about the supply chain bottlenecks.” I would comment that she may well be right, but its unlikely inflation will rapidly return to the levels of 2% or below enjoyed during most of the past decade, however, Dr. Zandi believes that it will be back below 4% by this time next year. Authors note a 4% increase in wages no doubt played a role in the inflation rate.

  WAMC Northeast Public Radio April 13, 2022
• Legislature must act on the crushing burden of student debt

  And the switch cannot be more dramatic: According to the Pew Research Center, over two-thirds of all higher education students are now taking out loans to meet the rising cost of tuition. Education Data found that the average loan amount has tripled since 1993, to over $30,000. And, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the Black and white wage gap is worsening.

  Bay State Banner April 13, 2022
• Government numbers show depression virtually over, for now

  The additions brought total jobs to within 1% of pre-pandemic numbers, Economic Policy Institute Senior Analyst Elise Gould pointed out. There were 5.92 million jobless workers in March, compared to 5.717 million in February 2020, BLS data showed.

  People’s World April 13, 2022
• The ‘Crazy’ Reason for the IRS’s Huge Backlog

  As strong as the jobs numbers have been, it’s worth remembering that the economy is still millions of jobs short of where it was projected to be in the absence of the pandemic. At the current rate of growth, the job market will return to pre-pandemic levels this year, as soon as summer. “We are on pace to recover nearly EIGHT YEARS faster than we recovered from the Great Recession,” Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute tweeted, while crediting the rapid recovery to the fiscal policy choices made by Congress.

  The Fiscal Times April 13, 2022
• Frugality Goes Only So Far in Dealing With Inflation

  Teresa Ghilarducci is the Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. She’s the co-author of “Rescuing Retirement” and a member of the board of directors of the Economic Policy Institute.

  Bloomberg April 13, 2022