Media clips

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• The Black Lives Next Door

  Last year in San Mateo, Calif., a history teacher at Hillsdale High School conducted a mock hearing of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sophia Heath, then a freshman, played an anti-apartheid lawyer. She recalls that she “was really excited and that was the beginning of where my activism started.” On the web, she found Coalition Z, a youth group that registers voters and presses officials to combat climate change, provide more equitable school funding and enact gun control. Ms. Heath started a local chapter.

  The New York Times August 14, 2020
• This Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, Addressing the Gender Gap Is Essential Work

  As the Economic Policy Institute indicated through its own research, not only do Black women experience disparities in all these fields, but they experience them at every socioeconomic level. For instance, Black female doctors are paid 73 percent of the average hourly wage of non-Hispanic white male doctors—a $16.82 hourly shortfall. Meanwhile, Black women who work as waitstaff are paid 89 percent less, comprising a difference of $1.13 per hour. And the inequalities persist, even when Black women comprise the majority of the respective workforce in that field.

  The Root August 14, 2020
• When systemic racism meets the coronavirus, Black women suffer economically

  Black households have less in the bank in the case of, say, an economy-tanking global pandemic. In general, they have about fives times less in liquid assets — checking and savings accounts, cash and directly held stocks, bonds and mutual funds — than White households: About $8,800 compared to $49,500, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 

  USA Today August 14, 2020
• Why Trump’s ‘war’ on USPS impacts working families: EPI

  Economic Policy Institute Economist Monique Morrissey joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers to discuss the concerns over cost-cutting at USPS.
  Yahoo Finance August 14, 2020
• More than 1 in 3 Black women are on the front lines of the pandemic, but they aren’t even close to equal pay

  In fact, Black women doctors, nurses, teachers, child-care workers, waitresses and cashiers are, on average, paid 11-27% less than White men who are working the same job, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  “I think there’s a lot of attention given to gender pay gaps in general and much less to the intersectional nature of the gender pay disparity for Black women, Latinas, Native American women and even for Asian-American and Pacific Islander women,” Valerie Wilson, a director for the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy, tells CNBC Make It. “You know, it’s important that we understand that the gender pay gap has multiple dimensions and Black women, in particular, face dual penalty because of gender and race.”

  CNBC August 13, 2020
• Uber says its drivers make $55,000 a year, but some critics cry “phoney-baloney”

  “I think [Uber’s numbers] are phony-baloney,” said economist Larry Mishel, a distinguished fellow at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and author of a 2018 study about Uber’s wages.

  Mishel, who also found that most full-time Uber drivers make less than $20,000 a year, said the company’s earnings estimates fail to account for out-of-pocket costs drivers pay, such as gas and vehicle maintenance, which results in sharply lower wages.

  CBS News August 13, 2020
• Nation’s wealthiest Black man says corporate America should consider slavery reparations

  A Brookings Institute analysis found that in 2016, the typical white family had a net worth nearly 10 times that of a Black family ($171,000 compared to $17,150). In 2019, the average wage gap between a Black and White worker in the U.S. was 26.5%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Smith also noted that 70% of African American communities do not have a branch bank, meaning it can be much harder to obtain credit.

  ABC News August 13, 2020
• Biden and a progressive future

  Back in April, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg suggested that Biden might be quite a progressive president. She interviewed Lawrence Mishel, a labor economist who is the former president of the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. He voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary and supported Elizabeth Warren this year.

  Boulder Weekly August 13, 2020
• Black women workers are essential during the crisis and for the recovery but still are greatly underpaid

  Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, August 13, is a day to call attention to the fact that Black women deserve equal pay but are still severely underpaid. It marks how far into 2020—seven and a half months—that the average Black woman must work to make the same amount as the average non-Hispanic white man was paid in 2019. On an average hourly basis, Black women are paid just 66 cents on the dollar, relative to non-Hispanic white men with the same level of education, age (a proxy for work experience), and geographic location.

  Workday Minnesota August 13, 2020
• ‘Cultural change must still happen inside offices’: What Kamala Harris as VP nominee means for the glass ceiling — and the gender pay gap

  However, the pay divide becomes stark along racial lines. Black women made 66 cents on the dollar in 2019, compared to white men, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute noted on Wednesday.

  MarketWatch August 13, 2020