One indicator that racial discrimination increased over the last four decades is that average hourly wage growth of black men and women lagged behind the wage growth of non-Hispanic white men and women. In an influential Economic Policy Institute paper, Valerie Wilson and William Rodgers found a 9 percentage point decline in the relative earnings of black men and a 14 percentage point decline among black women between 1979 and 2015. The widening disparity suggests that the civil rights movement did not crystallize its gains from the 1960s and structural racism resulted in lower earnings. But using a different earnings measure – median annual earnings of full-time/full-year workers (FTFY) – and adjusting for intensity of labor force attachment over a 15-year period – leads us to a more nuanced assessment that can help us understand what factors are driving the earnings gap.
Economics 21
May 22, 2020
Congressional Research Service reported July 23, 2019, that cumulative percent change during 1979-2018 in real wages for households in the top 10% of the income distribution was 37.6%, while for the middle- and low-income households it was 1.6% and 6.1%, respectively. Men in the middle and low income lost and women gained real wages. Household income for the top 1% increased 229% while the bottom 90% gained only 46% for the years 1979-2015 (Economic Policy Institute (EPI), March 27, 2019). Wage inequality is the driving force for income inequality. Using census data, Utah Workforce Services reports that Utah’s income inequality index (Gini coefficient) declined during 2014-2017 but has increased since 2017.
Standard Examiner
May 22, 2020
How bad the economic crisis could get is made starkly clear in an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Explaining that state and local governments are nearly all constrained in their ability to borrow money to meet expenses, including public services, the EPI analysis said that failure by Congress and the president to help states, cities and towns would undoubtedly lead to a depression.
AFSCME
May 22, 2020
Perot predicted the agreement would result in the movement of production and factories across from the USA to Mexico which would suck the life out of the American economy. In 2014, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that 700 000 US workers were displaced as a result of US-Mexico trade under NAFTA.
News24
May 22, 2020
Some Chicago areas have created drive up testing sites, but participating in this type of testing requires access to an automobile. Communities of color have been criticized for not taking shelter in recommendations seriously, however, according to the Economic Policy Institute, one in five African Americans and one in six Latinos do not hold the type of jobs that would allow them to do so.
The Hill
May 22, 2020
People of color (black, Latino, Asian American and other non-whites) account for 43% of all essential workers in the nation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of data released earlier this week by the Economic Policy Institute. White Americans still make up a majority of essential workers nationally, according to the data.
ABC News
May 22, 2020
That 44 percent difference sounds like a big deal, but not to folks familiar with the data. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the wage of the typical worker grew roughly 2 percent in the second period. So sure, wage growth of 2.88 percent over the course of a decade is better than 2.0 percent growth over a decade, but I don’t think I would make too much of that difference.
Counter Punch
May 22, 2020
What they’re saying: “We don’t know how many people have fallen off unemployment because they got rehired,” Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, tells Axios.
Axios
May 22, 2020
Young European workers, who have staffed many U.S. resorts, are staying home. Visa processing for U.S. work and travel visas at consulates abroad has basically shut down everywhere, except for farmworkers, according to Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research for the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg News
May 22, 2020