The slow growth in wages is the single biggest economic issue hampering middle-class families, according to Elise Gould, a senior economist at the left-leaning think tank the Economic Policy Institute.
“Many families are still feeling the after-effects of the Great Recession,” Gould told ABC News, referencing the downturn following the 2008 financial crash. “We’ve seen the economy grow greatly. … We’re still not seeing a full recovery in terms of wages and living standards.”
“Most American families get their income from work,” she added. “So I think we need to strengthen work and the wages that they get.”
ABC News
February 11, 2020
While you should have eight times your starting salary by the time your 60 saved for retirement, most of those approaching retirement have vastly less than that. The median amount saved by those between 56 and 61 is $21,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Yahoo Money
February 11, 2020
What is the tax burden truly like for the top 1% across the Midwest? To find out, GOBankingRates analyzed data from multiple sources including the Tax Foundation and the Economic Policy Institute. The tax burden percentage also factored in income and sales taxes, sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center. Check out the results!
MSN
February 11, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that analyzes quarterly jobs numbers, found in late 2019 that black unemployment rates were the highest of any group in the country, and in the District, the percentage of out-of-work black residents outpaced unemployed white residents at a rate of about 6 to 1.
The Washington Post
February 11, 2020
A study from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, found that between 2010 – 2012, workers in free bargaining states were 2.4 times as likely to be protected by a union contract and had 15.8 percent higher hourly wages. When adjusted for individual demographic and socioeconomic factors such as cost of living, free bargaining states were still found to have 3.1 percent higher wages than right to work states.
Williamson Home Page
February 11, 2020
Right-to-work destruction, no matter what you call it, will have grave consequences. Employees who refuse to fork over their hard-earned money to Big Labor will lose their jobs, plain and simple. And many of the workers whose paychecks will be pillaged are actually getting paid less as a consequence of being under union monopoly control. Union-boss allies like Richard Rothstein, now a distinguished fellow with the AFL-CIO-founded Economic Policy Institute, have admitted as much.
Washington Times
February 11, 2020
According to a 2019 report from the Economic Policy Institute, racial disparities are widespread in the Midwest. In Wisconsin, black students are suspended at five times the rate of white students. African Americans are also imprisoned at five times the rate of white residents.
Wisconsin Public Radio
February 11, 2020
Providing unpaid leave was only the first step; 25 years after the Family and Medical Leave Act, more workers need paid leave: Only 13 percent of private-sector workers have access to any paid family leave, which means that 87 percent do not. Due to this widespread lack of paid family leave, workers have to make difficult choices between their careers and their caregiving responsibilities precisely when they need their paychecks the most, such as following the birth of a child or when they or a loved one falls ill. [Economic Policy Institute]
Oklahoma Policy Institute
February 11, 2020
MagnifyMoney calculated the minimum wage of workers in cities with a population of 300,000 or more in 2018 to determine the relative affordability of rental housing. Its findings are based on data from the Joint Center of Housing Studies for median rent and the Economic Policy Institute for minimum wages. To find estimated take-home pay after payroll tax, it assumed 16 percent withholding in Social Security, Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), Medicare and federal income tax.
The Center Square
February 11, 2020
The Raise the Wage Act, which the House passed in July, would lift the wages of nearly 40 million workers over the next few years, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, passed by the House just last week, would help level the playing field for workers in collective bargaining. At a time when CEO salaries are soaring while workers’ wages stagnate and “right to work” laws cripple organization efforts, these bills could dramatically affect people’s lives.
The Washington Post
February 11, 2020