The Economic Policy Institute notes the increase in major strike activity in 2018 and 2019 resulted in a 35-year high for workers involved in significant work stoppage over this two-year period.
The Business Journals
February 28, 2020
Elise Gould from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said comparing the median household income across time is difficult due to changes in data methodology, and told CNBC that “2018 is not the highest it’s ever been.”
However it did note that 2018 median household income of $63,179, was 2.3 percent higher than in 2016 when it was $61,779, according to EPI data.
Newsweek
February 28, 2020
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the three states with the highest income inequality are New York, Connecticut, and Florida. Ironically, those same states have seen some of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. Thirteen people were killed at an immigration center in Binghamton, New York in 2009. On June 12, 2016, In Orlando, Florida, 49 people were killed, and 53 were wounded in a shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub. Then, on Valentine’s Day 2018, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School—in Parkland, Florida—killed 17 and wounded 17 more.
Kevin MD
February 28, 2020
That’s less than an appropriate average living wage of $16.87 per hour, as calculated by Alliance for a Just Society (AJS), and it’s not enough — even with two full-time workers — to attain an “adequate but modest living standard” for a family of four, which at the median is over $60,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Black Star News
February 28, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute describes fair work week laws as
…laws (that) provide workers with greater stability, predictability, and flexibility in their work schedules; in many cases, they also require employers to give part-time staff opportunities to increase their hours before adding new staff. These comprehensive laws primarily apply to retail and fast-food workers-who are more likely than other workers to be subject to volatile work hours. The nearly 740,000 workers protected by these comprehensive fair workweek laws include an estimated 327,000 workers in New York City; 175,000 in San José; 172,000 in the state of Oregon; 40,000 in Seattle; 23,000 in San Francisco; and 2,500 in Emeryville, California.
Seeking Alpha
February 28, 2020
Nevada was among the states hardest hit during the Great Recession; it held the record for the highest unemployment in the country in 2010 (at 14.9 percent) and experienced some of the highest foreclosure rates. The state’s GDP has increased 14.9 percent from 2009 to 2018, but per capita GDP has only increased an anemic 1.7 percent over those years — placing it 44th in the nation for the breadth of recovery, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis.
While Nevada has seen economic gains since the end of the recession, they have flowed overwhelmingly to the state’s highest income earners. The top five percent of households saw their inflation-adjusted incomes increase almost 15 percent between 2009 and 2018, while the poorest 20 percent of households saw their incomes decline by about the same amount, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. The richest Nevadans — the top 1 percent — experienced average real income growth of 22 percent, more than 16 times that of the bottom 99 percent between 2009 and 2015, according to a 2019 report from the nonpartisan Guinn Center. From 2017 to 2018, Nevada households saw their median income decline about 1 percent, as the U.S. overall saw median household income grow about 1 percent.
Capital & Main
February 28, 2020
Minnesota is one of 33 states plus the District of Columbia where infant care is more expensive than annual tuition at a four-year public college ($11,226) and average rent ($11,137), according to the Economic Policy Institute.
StarTribune
February 28, 2020
America’s substantial trade deficit with China is a “significant reason why manufacturing employment has not fully recovered along with the rest of the economy,” the Economic Policy Institute said in the report. Trade deficits also help to explain stagnant wages in manufacturing and among workers lacking a college degree.
AZ Central
February 28, 2020
But there is something else they can directly influence: top-level pay. From 1978 to 2018, the inflation-adjusted compensation of American CEOs grew 1,000% and that of very high earners 339% whereas wages for the typical worker were up just 12%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Research shows that executives, managers, supervisors and financial professionals account for 70% of the income gains of the top 0.1% between 1979 and 2005.
The Wall Street Journal
February 28, 2020
National Taxpayers Union’s Pete Sepp and Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens talked about the 2019 tax filing season and impact of the 2017 tax law.
C-SPAN
February 28, 2020