The ostensible purpose of such noncompetes is to protect companies’ trade secrets. However, they now cover roughly 20 percent of American workers according to the FTC (and well more than that according to a survey by the Economic Policy Institute), which means that countless barbershops, hardware stores, pet-walking services, and sundry mom-and-pops must be harboring trade secrets as vigilantly as the CIA (where leaking is subject to draconian punishment and yet still happens, but I digress).
American Prospect
July 29, 2024
An analysis by Elise Gould and Katherine deCourcy of the Economic Policy Institute showed workers in the bottom decile getting real wage gains of 12.1 percent since 2019. Workers in the second-lowest quintile saw real wage gains of 5.0 percent. Given decades of stagnant or declining real wages, this is a big deal.
New Republic
July 29, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute releases an annual report on U.S. CEO compensation. The organization focuses on the compensation of the CEOs of the 350 largest publicly owned U.S. firms by revenue. The EPI found the average annual realized CEO compensation in 2022 was $25.2 million, down 14.8% from 2021 mostly due to the reduced value of exercised stock options. That average is up from just $1.9 million in 1978, which is not necessarily troubling in itself. However, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1978 was around 30.9, meaning CEOs were earning roughly 31 times the pay of their average employees at the time. By 2022, that ratio had jumped to 342.8.
U.S. News & World Report
July 29, 2024
A survey published in February by NerdWallet found that 27% of people under age 60 said that they did not plan to have children because the cost of child care is too high.
In Michigan, the average annual cost of child care per child is $10,861, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute.
Michigan Independent
July 29, 2024
An analysis of 2021 current population survey data published in July by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found that workers in the South earned less than those in other regions.
The median Southern worker earned $20.30 an hour, compared to $21.05 in the Midwest, $22.08 in the West, and $23.81 in the Northeast. Additionally, the analysis found that 22% of Southern workers earned less than $15 an hour, compared to 17% in the Midwest, 12% in the Northeast, and 10% in the West.
The Economic Policy Institute pointed to low minimum wages and unionization rates in Southern states as two factors keeping pay down.
Business Insider
July 29, 2024
he latest economic indicators point to a moderation in consumer price inflation since its peak in June 2022.
Analysts from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) noted on Thursday that prices for several key goods have actually declined over the past few years, bringing some relief to consumers.
According to underlying commodity data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, major improvements have been observed in energy prices. Families preparing for winter can expect to pay 36% less for heating fuel compared to mid-2022. Similarly, gasoline prices have declined by 29%, and heating and cooking gas is 15% cheaper.
Investing.com
July 29, 2024
Note that AGI includes both earnings from work and taxable investment income. Another study, by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), examined Social Security Administration data to break down the top tiers in terms of average annual earnings. Here is what it found
Investopedia
July 29, 2024
The globalization of the U.S. economy is a significant driver of this wealth gap. According to the Economic Policy Institute, globalization has eliminated more than five million U.S. manufacturing jobs and 70,000 factories. This was exacerbated by the increased demand for highly skilled workers, creating a disproportionate playing field that has since left multiple generations of America’s middle-class families struggling to find financial prosperity.
Fast Company
July 29, 2024
The data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that annual wages for the top 1% in 2021 in the U.S. reached $819,324 on average. Those considered to be in the top 0.1% earned an average of $3,312,693 annually.
Meanwhile, those in the bottom 90% earned an average income of $36,571 annually, EPI data showed.
FOX 10 Phoenix
July 29, 2024
The tipped wage exploits workers by design. It’s part of a more nefarious Southern economic development model—characterized by business deregulation, opposition to unions, minimal worker protections, poverty wages, low tax rates, and regressive austerity measures shouldered by the working-class—that experts say is rooted in racism.
“The goal of the [Southern economic development] model is to get labor for as cheaply as possible,” says Chandra Childers, senior policy and economic analyst at the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) at the Economic Policy Institute, and the author of a report on the model. Childers says the origins of the tipped wage date back to the period following the abolition of slavery, when businesses like the Pullman Company trains didn’t have to pay Black porters and maids, if customers tipped.
The American Prospect
July 29, 2024