The Economic Policy Institute, which released its own study on the 50th anniversary of Kerner Commission’s findings, reports that in 2017 black unemployment was higher than it was in 1968, and it remained around twice the rate of white unemployment. The rate of incarcerated individuals who are black also tripled since the 1968 report came out. And the wealth gap has also increased. Today, the median white family has 10 times the wealth of the median black family.
Smithsonian Magazine | March 5, 2018
Business recap: Week of Feb. 26
The Washington Post
Fifty years after the historic Kerner Commission identified “white racism” as the key cause of “pervasive discrimination in employment, education and housing,” there has been no progress in how African Americans fare in comparison to whites when it comes to homeownership, unemployment and incarceration, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In some cases, African Americans are worse off today than before the civil rights movement culminated in laws barring housing and voter discrimination, as well as racial segregation.
The Washington Post | March 5, 2018
A look at black America, fifty years after the Kerner Commission The nation was in remarkable racial turmoil in 1968. After riots roiled Newark, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, or the Kerner Commission, prepared a landmark report for President Lyndon B. Johnson, to better understand the continuing struggle of African American communities. They named “white racism” as the root cause of the discrimination leading to unemployment, under-education and inadequate housing for black citizens. This update reveals a very mixed picture of black progress. The good news: black people are better educated now, with 90% of younger Americans graduating high school compared to half in 1968. “With respect to homeownership, unemployment, and incarceration, America has failed to deliver any progress for African Americans over the last five decades,” they find. Click through for the numbers. Read more about the astonishingly candid Kerner report here.
Fortune | March 5, 2018
Among African Americans, the homeownership rate is unchanged over the past 50 years. At 40 percent, it trails whites by 30 points, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
Seattle Times | March 5, 2018
According to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute, “The substantial progress in educational attainment of African Americans has been accompanied by significant absolute improvements in wages, incomes, wealth, and health since 1968. But black workers still make only 82.5 cents on every dollar earned by white workers, African Americans are 2.5 times as likely to be in poverty as whites, and the median white family has almost 10 times as much wealth as the median black family.”
Atlanta Black Star | March 5, 2018
Looking at some key statistics, you might not guess that the federal government banned housing discrimination 50 years ago. The African American homeownership rate is no higher than it was when the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968, while the wealth of the typical African American family is only one-tenth the wealth of the typical white American family, according to new figures compiled by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The black homeownership rate was 41.2 percent in 2016, virtually unchanged from 41.1 percent in 1968, EPI reported. During the same period, white homeownership increased 5.2 percentage points to 71.1 percent in 2016. This inequality reflects the legacy of African American exclusion from wealth-building housing programs; inadequate enforcement of fair lending and housing laws; and the disproportionately negative impact of the mortgage meltdown on communities of color, said Lisa Rice, executive vice president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, a cons… (appears to be whole story, paywalled).
Inman | March 5, 2018
Una de las mejores noticias de 2017 es que por fin se registraron aumentos salariales a todos los niveles. Como explica la economista Elise Gould del Economic Policy Institute (EPI) “la mayoría de los trabajadores está cobrando más por hora que en 2007”, el momento más elevado de ingresos por trabajo anterior a la Gran Recesión. No obstante no hay suficientes motivos para que la celebración sea larga porque a pesar de la mejora, la desigualdad salarial, que lleva cuatro décadas creciendo, no consigue frenarse a todos los niveles. Según Gould, sigue habiendo muchas diferencias, y algunas crecientes, dependiendo del género, la educación y raza/etnia. (whole story, and in El Diario )
La Opinion | March 5, 2018
Features EPI data in graphic.
The New York Times | March 1, 2018
As encouraging as the new report is, its author — Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute — told me that people should not be confused by the big picture. The recent pay raises for the poor and middle class don’t come close to erasing the inequality in pay increases of the 21st century. High-income workers have still done much better since 2000 than middle- or low-income workers. And the Trump tax law will worsen the situation. But a year of good news is still worth celebrating. A couple of other details from the report: Women’s median hourly wage rose to 84 percent of men’s median wage, up from 78.3 percent in 2000. “The gap has essentially been cut in half since the 1970s,” Gould said. A big reason is that women have become more educated than men, and more educated workers earn a large premium. African-American workers were the one big group that didn’t narrow its disadvantage in 2017. It’s a deeply disturbing trend: The median African-American hourly wage was 74.6 percent of the median white wage, down from 79.2 percent in 2000. (Related: On the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission report, a Times Op-ed today looks at the state of racial inequities in America.) You can read the Economic Policy Institute report here.
The New York Times | March 1, 2018
U.S. wage growth remains slow and uneven, with African-Americans and women still at a clear disadvantage while the wealthiest are accumulating more money than ever, a new analysis of census data shows. Median real wages grew only 0.2 percent over the past year, according to a report to be released Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think-tank. Wages for African-Americans declined in most wage brackets, while women with graduate degrees made less money than men with only college degrees. By contrast, those in the 95th wage percentile saw an average pay hike of 1.5 percent over the past year. (whole story)
Bloomberg | March 1, 2018
Wages lag inflation target: A paper by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute — yes, Virginia, there are two EPIs, both of which address workplace issues, one left-leaning and one right-leaning; we find it confusing, too — anyway, the left-leaning EPI finds wages are not growing fast enough for the economy to be considered to be at full employment. Wages should grow 3.5 percent to keep up with the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent inflation target, the report argues, but they grew only 2.4 percent in 2017. “This relatively slow rate of nominal wage growth provides a strong indication that the economy still has a ways to go before reaching full employment,” the study says. Read the report here.
Politico Pro | March 1, 2018
If the court rules against unions, it’s possible that 1.5 million Black women will no longer have equitable union representation. Membership fees sustain union operations, which tend to support marginalized workers in particular. Public sector unions have fought for equal pay for women of color and have historically served as advocates for workplace integration. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Black women union members have increased their wages up to 94.9 percent of their Black male counterparts, compared to 91 percent of non-union Black women. The National Women’s Law Center found similar outcomes for unionized Latina women as well. While we have not achieved full pay equity across race and gender, unions prove themselves to be one vehicle to push for systemic change.
| March 1, 2018
Wisconsin Public Radio | March 1, 2018
Working Life | March 1, 2018
After Martin Luther King Jr’s 1968 assassination sparked riots across the U.S., President Lyndon B. Johnson commissioned a report to examine the roots of unrest in black communities. The primary cause? “White racism” leading to discrimination and unemployment in, education, and housing, the report found. Some 50 years later, despite milestones including the election of America’s first black president, the economic landscape has barely changed for black Americans, a new report released this week by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal, nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based think tank, found. “In almost all areas, it is about the same and in other areas there is actually lost ground,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the EPI’s program on race, ethnicity, and the economy and an author on the study. “We have not seen nearly as much progress in economic outcomes as we might expect given the gains in other outcomes.”
Market Watch | March 1, 2018
Thus, the 50th anniversary of the Kerner commission offers a chance for reflection. Janelle Jones, John Schmitt, and Valerie Wilson offer a useful starting point in the short report, 50 years after the Kerner Commission: African Americans are better off in many ways but are still disadvantaged by racial inequality, from the Economic Policy Institute (February 26, 2018). The report compares black and white America in 1968 and the present, along a number of dimensions. (So that the table would be more readaable on the blog, I’ve trimmed off the last column, which shows changes between the two years.) For example, blacks have made dramatic gains to near-equality with whites in high school graduation rates. But in terms of college attendance, the racial gap remains very large. (whole story)
Conversable Economist | March 1, 2018
New research from the Economic Policy Institute reveals that, now more than ever, American workers are divided into one of two categories: employed and overworked, and those struggling to enter or re-enter the workforce. The report, written by Valerie Wilson, EPI director of the program on race, ethnicity and the economy, and Janelle Jones, an economic analyst, examines data on trends in the proportion of workers considered non-earners, and prime-age workers’ annual work hours from 1979 to 2016. Prime age refers to men and women between the ages of 25 and 54 years; non-earners comprise prime-age adults who haven’t worked for an entire year. (whole story)
Human Resources Executive | March 1, 2018
Wages improved up and down the scale as the economy hit full employment. The hourly wage of workers at the bottom tenth of the income distribution rose 11 percent from 1995 to 2000, according to the Economic Policy Institute. It rose almost 8 percent for workers in the middle. … Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute replicated the exercise for the economic expansion that ended with the demise of the housing bubble in 2007: Unemployment, he found, had to fall below 4.6 percent to keep workers in the bottom 10 percent from losing ground. At this pace, unemployment will soon have to hit zero for workers at the bottom to get a raise. So what else can be done? There is obviously a role for training and education to help workers meet employers’ rising demand for skills, especially at the beginning of their career. Fatih Guvenen of the University of Minnesota notes that the income of 25-year-old men starting their careers has declined sharply since the early 1970s and is now about where it was in the late ’50s. But a strategy focused on education will not tip the balance. As Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute points out, the list of remedies is long. It includes raising the minimum wage, increasing unionization, banning mandatory arbitration for employment claims, ending arbitrary and unpredictable scheduling, and ensuring that companies that subcontract their low-wage work remain in some way accountable for the workers.
The New York Times | February 28, 2018
I’ve had conversations with black people who’ve told me that voting hasn’t changed anything for blacks in America. And while I vehemently disagree with their assessment, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute lends credence to their argument. The new report, titled 50 Years After The Kerner Commission, measures black progress in the half-century since President Lyndon Johnson convened a group to examine the causes of black uprisings that had taken place in cities across America. The Economic Policy Institute found that, as of 2016, the median black family had only 10.2 percent of the wealth of the median white family. As it’s been for the past 50 years, the black unemployment rate today is twice that of the white unemployment rate, and even when blacks are employed, they make only 82.5 cents for every dollar made by whites. Even worse, the share of African Americans in prison has almost tripled since 1968, and today blacks are 6.4 times as likely to be incarcerated as whites.
Philadelphia Inquirer | February 28, 2018
A new report shows just how little progress America has made on racial equality. Lyndon Johnson first commissioned the Kerner Report to investigate the root causes of 1967’s race riots, but Johnson and other policymakers largely ignored the commission’s findings and policy recommendations upon their release in 1968. The Kerner Report found that white racism had sparked the riots. Police brutality, an inadequate social safety net, a broken criminal justice system—these were the forces that pushed people of color into the streets. Fifty years later, the Economic Policy Institute has released a report commemorating Kerner’s 50th anniversary, and while it found that rates of educational attainment among African-Americans have increased, African-American wages still lag far behind those of white workers. In other areas, progress is stagnant: (whole story)
The New Republic | February 28, 2018
How far has the United States come in the years since? For insights, the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, released a new report this week that looks at what has changed, and what hasn’t, in the last 50 years. Below, four numbers that tell the story of racial progress and persisting inequality in America: (whole story)
Mother Jones | February 28, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, says that unionized black women would suffer the most from an anti-union decision in Janus. Black women make up a disproportionate share of public employees (18 percent, or roughly 1.5 million workers). Despite their ugly histories of racist exclusion, unions have emerged as a key vehicle for collapsing the vast inequality between black women and the rest of the workforce. According to the NWLC, black women who belong to unions make 30 percent more than those who don’t. And while black women earn 65 cents for every dollar earned by white men, that wage gap is 20 percent smaller for unionized black women.
Mother Jones | February 28, 2018
“Nonmembers’ fair share fees cover the union’s expenses related to collective bargaining and contract administration, but not expenses for political or ideological advocacy,” according to Celine McNicholas, Zane Mokhiber, and Marni von Wilpert of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. This is not the first time the Supreme Court has heard arguments against public-sector unions’ fair share fees. “More than 40 years ago, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education that fair share fees could be collected from public-sector workers,” according to McNicholas, Mokhiber and Wilpert.
MultiBriefs | February 28, 2018
More than ever, two workforce groups are emerging: those who are working, staying in the workforce and putting in longer hours; and those who are falling out of, or never got into, the workforce, according to a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report. Why? Because opportunities are not universally available, EPI says. (whole story)
HR Drive | February 28, 2018
Convened to examine the causes of civil unrest in black communities, the presidential commission issued a 1968 report with a stark conclusion: America was moving towards two societies, “one black, one white — separate and unequal.” Fifty years after the historic Kerner Commission identified “white racism” as the key cause of “pervasive discrimination in employment, education and housing,” there has been no progress in how African Americans fare in comparison to whites when it comes to homeownership, unemployment and incarceration, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute released on Monday. (whole story)
Washington Post | February 27, 2018
Black unemployment is near an all-time low, but that only tells part of the story. One in every five working-age black men in the United States did not work at all in 2016, nor earn any income. “It’s staggering that this level of black men are disconnected from workforce,” says Janelle Jones, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute who co-authored a recently published, wide-ranging report on hours worked by all workers ages 25 to 54. EPI is a left-leaning research group. (whole story)
CNN Money | February 27, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute says today that “African Americans are better off in many ways” compared to 1968, but: With respect to homeownership, unemployment, and incarceration, America has failed to deliver any progress for African Americans over the last five decades. In these areas, their situation has either failed to improve relative to whites or has worsened. In 2017 the black unemployment rate was 7.5 percent, up from 6.7 percent in 1968, and is still roughly twice the white unemployment rate. In 2015, the black homeownership rate was just over 40 percent, virtually unchanged since 1968, and trailing a full 30 points behind the white homeownership rate, which saw modest gains over the same period. And the share of African Americans in prison or jail almost tripled between 1968 and 2016 and is currently more than six times the white incarceration rate.
Mother Jones | February 27, 2018
BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT PERSISTS: Fifty years ago the Kerner Commission on Civil Disorders said “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white–separate and unequal.” The report noted “Pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment, education and housing, which have resulted in the continuing exclusion of great numbers of Negroes from the benefits of economic progress.” A half-century later, African Americans have made some progress in educational attainment and wages, but “black workers still make only 82.5 cents on every dollar earned by white workers” and “the median white family has almost 10 times as much wealth as the median black family,” according to a report released Monday by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. In the areas of homeownership, unemployment, and incarceration, things have either remained the same for African Americans or gotten worse. The Washington Post’s Tracy Jan pulls a key stat: “7.5 percent of African Americans were unemployed in 2017, compared to 6.7 percent in 1968 — still roughly twice the white unemployment rate.” But wait. In his State of the Union address last month, didn’t President Trump tout black unemployment as “the lowest rate ever recorded”? Trump was referring to December’s black unemployment figure of 6.8 percent , which was indeed low relative to previous unemployment figures for African Americans (though not relative to unemployment for white Americans). Trump called 6.8 percent “the lowest” because it was the lowest black unemployment rate in the current BLS data series, which goes back to 1972. But 6.8 percent black unemployment was still higher than 1968’s 6.7 percent black unemployment — which the Kerner Commission, 50 years ago, judged a disgrace. (Incidentally, you probably haven’t heard the president mention that in January unemployment for African Americans jumped back up to 7.7 percent.) Read more from the Post here, read the EPI report here, and read a 1968 summary of the Kerner Commission report here.
Politico | February 27, 2018
“A weaker union is going to be less able to protect its workers, and the people who basically need the most protection are those who are usually discriminated against,” Janelle Jones, an analyst for the Economic Policy Institute, tells Marketplace. Unionizing particularly tends to benefit minority workers, especially women of color. Earlier this month, Jones and EPI labor counsel Celine McNicholas released a brief showing that black women could be especially harmed by the case, due to their high levels of participation in public-sector union jobs, including in the education system. Black women and men in public sector unions also experience a smaller gap in pay when compared to the same groups in nonunion jobs, according to data from the EPI. The National Women’s Law Center notes similar findings, adding that Hispanic women also see pay and health care benefits better than their nonunion peers.
VOX | February 27, 2018