Media clips

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• American CEOs make 351 times more than workers. In 1965 it was 15 to one

  Last week, the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan thinktank, released a report on the increasing pay gap between chief executives and workers. This research tells a familiar story with updated figures. When taking into account stocks, which now make up more than 80% of the average CEO’s compensation package, the report found that chief-executive pay has risen by an astounding 1,322% since 1978. That’s more than six times more than the top 0.1% of wage earners and more than 73 times higher than the growth of the typical worker’s pay, which grew by only 18% in the same time period. Most remarkable, however, is the 18.9% increase in CEO compensation between 2019 and 2020 alone.

  CEO compensation outpacing that of the 0.1% is a clear indication that this growth is not the product of a competitive race for skills or increased productivity, the EPI report explains, so much as the “power of CEOs to extract concessions. Consequently, if CEOs earned less or were taxed more, there would be no adverse impact on the economy’s output or on employment,” the report concludes.

  This report joins a slew of data sounding an alarm on a massive upward transfer of wealth to the top 1% over the course of the pandemic. One estimate by the Institute for Policy Studies puts this figure as high as $4tn, or a 54% increase in fortunes for the world’s 2,365 billionaires.

  Today in the US, the CEO-to-worker pay gap stands at a staggering 351 to one, an unacceptable increase from 15 to one in 1965. In other words, the average CEO makes nearly nine times what the average person will earn over a lifetime in just one year.

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  The EPI is correct. A wealth tax on the 1% would not hinder the economy nor employment, so much as rein in the excesses of the billionaire space race and luxury doomsday bunkers that stand in stark relief to the floods, fires, famine and pestilence that have currently taken hold.

  The Guardian August 20, 2021
• How One Formerly Redlined City Is Striving to Green Itself

  As Richard Rothstein, a fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, a worker-focused think tank, argues in his history of segregation, The Color of Law, because Richmond was essentially all White before the war, the federal government’s role in housing directly established segregation in the city.

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  Rothstein writes that in Richmond, this meant when White families moved to newly built suburbs like Rollingwood, Black people were left in the same public housing built for the war, closer to pollution from industry and without federal money to help them buy their own homes. By 1950, the war projects housed more than 75 percent of Richmond’s Black population.

  Mother Jones August 20, 2021
• Meet 4 typical unvaccinated Americans, from a Latino agriculture worker to a 12-year-old Snapchat user with Republican parents

  Low-earning Americans get the least paid time off, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Nearly half of people who have not received a vaccine jab told KFF they are concerned about getting paid time off to get a shot and to deal with adverse side effects.

  Business Insider August 20, 2021
• Oregon’s farmworkers disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, study shows

  Indigenous farmworkers were also much more likely to work for a farm labor contractor. Farm labor contractors are the fastest-growing segment of farm employment and made up one-quarter of federal employment law violations in agriculture, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that examines the economic conditions of low and middle-income workers.

  Statesman Journal August 20, 2021
• Against the Legacy of Redlining, New Shades of Green

  As Richard Rothstein, a fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, a worker-focused think tank, argues in his history of segregation, “The Color of Law,” because Richmond was essentially all White before the war, the federal government’s role in housing directly established segregation in the city.

   

  Undark August 20, 2021
• Democrats Considering Inclusion of Union Member Tax Break in Reconciliation Bill

  Corporations often scaremonger about union dues to their employees, saying that union membership is expensive and therefore not worth it. However, research shows that union members are paid 11.2 percent more than non-union workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, with greater access to benefits like health care.

  Truthout August 20, 2021
• Delaying labor talks is a classic strategy in union negotiations. It seems to be at play in Pittsburgh-area hospitals

  Employers spend an estimated $340 million annually for “union avoidance” consultants to discourage organized labor campaigns by improving management techniques and employee relations, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based outfit that advocates for labor.

   

  Pittsburgh Post Gazette August 20, 2021
• Are Firms Causing People To Quit? Quits Rate Increasing To 2.7%

  The Economic Policy Institute’s quip — “there is no such thing as a labor shortage, there is a wage shortage” represents that view.

  Forbes August 20, 2021
• Timeline: How Corporate America Has Helped Decimate Unions

  The declining bargaining power of unions contributes to the crisis of extreme income inequality in the United States. “The erosion of collective bargaining is the second largest factor that suppressed wage growth and fueled wage inequality over the last four decades,” finds the Economic Policy Institute. Belonging to a union significantly boosts wages: Unionized workers earn, on average, over 11% more than their nonunionized counterparts and are more likely to have health benefits from their employer. Unionized workers also are less likely to get laid off than their nonunion workers. 

  Capital and Main August 20, 2021
• August 20
  August 20, 2021