A new report from the Economic Policy Institute draws attention to this aspect of the state of early childhood education in the United States today, calling it “the elephant in the room” that is getting lost because the focus of reform is always on improving access and affordability for families.
Nevada Current
February 5, 2020
Despite the growing U.S. economy, the racial wealth gap persists and is mostly fueled by the racial income gap. The Economic Policy Institute reported in 2018 that Black men were paid 69.70 cents on the white male dollar and Black women only 60.80 cents on the white male dollar. To make matters even worse, the institute’s 2018 State of Working America Wages report revealed that the wages of white workers have been growing at a much faster rate than Black workers since 2000. As a result, white households have nearly 6.5 times the wealth of Black households on average. Although slavery and redlining, “a practice that denies services to whole neighborhoods on the basis of race or ethnicity,” per Investopedia, can be labeled as the initial conditions that created wealth disparity, research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland asserts that income inequality is what continues to drive the racial wealth gap.
Reader's Digest
February 4, 2020
Critics of USMCA such as the liberal Economic Policy Institute suggest it will create no more than 51,000 new jobs over the next six years, but Kerrigan counters that some job projections are actually conservative because businesses that profit will create more jobs and thus help their communities.
One News Now
February 4, 2020
In contrast, the average for all working-age families is shockingly low. Their median nest egg was a paltry $5,000 as of 2013, the latest year for which the Economic Policy Institute has data. That’s because many working-age families had little or zero savings.
American News Group
February 4, 2020
In addition, the Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing on the 2017 Tax Law and Who It Left Behind on March 27, 2019. Witnesses included Nancy Abromowitz of the American University Washington College of Law, Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute, Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum, Jason Oh of the University of California Los Angeles, and Christopher Shelton of the Communications Workers of America.
Insurance News Net
February 4, 2020
The minimum wage—an important mechanism for increasing worker wages—has also failed to keep up with rising costs of living. Today’s federal minimum wage of $7.25 offers far less buying power than in the past, in large part because it is not indexed to inflation.20 In 2019, the federal minimum wage was worth 31 percent less than in 1968, when its inflation-adjusted value peaked, and 17 percent less than in 2009, when the federal minimum wage was last raised.21 If the minimum wage had risen at the rate of productivity, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that today’s minimum wage would be more than $20 per hour, using 2018 dollars.22 Evidence suggests that raising the minimum wage promotes overall economic growth, and research has shown that wage growth for low-income workers has been fastest in states that increased their minimum wage.23
- Economic Policy Institute, “The Productivity-Pay Gap,” available at https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/(last accessed November 2019). ↩
- David Cooper, “Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers” (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2019), available at https://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-15-by-2024-would-lift-pay-for-nearly-40-million-workers/. ↩
- David Cooper, Elise Gould, and Ben Zipperer, “Low-wage workers are suffering from a decline in the real value of the federal minimum wage” (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2019), available at https://www.epi.org/publication/labor-day-2019-minimum-wage/. ↩
- Matthew A. Winkler, “State With High Minimum Wages Are Doing Just Fine,” Bloomberg, July 26, 2019, available at https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-26/minimum-wage-hikes-don-t-stifle-state-economic-booms; Elise Gould, “Wage growth for low-wage workers has been strongest in states with minimum wage increases,” Economic Policy Institute, March 5, 2019, available https://www.epi.org/publication/wage-growth-for-low-wage-workers-has-been-strongest-in-states-with-minimum-wage-increases/. ↩
- Economic Policy Institute, “Minimum Wage Tracker,” available at https://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-tracker/#/min_wage(last accessed October 2019). ↩
Idaho State Journal
February 4, 2020
Another CBO study from 2014 showed that a $10.10 federal minimum wage would cause businesses to spend $15 billion more in salaries, but this would be only .003 percent of the wages they paid in 2012. That same raise, according to the Economic Policy Institute, would “reduce government expenditures on current income-support programs by at least $7.6 billion.”
Idaho State Journal
February 4, 2020
It’s been 10 years since the federal government raised minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25, the Economic Policy Institute said. Clearly the minimum wage must increase to keep pace with inflation and to prevent inflation from cutting into employee paychecks. Yet, this is not the case since wage gains have kept pace with inflation, according to The Wall Street Journal. Therefore, increasing the Federal minimum wage to $15 will have unnecessary winners and losers.
The Appalachian
February 4, 2020
Advanced manufacturing and especially aerospace remain a pillar of Connecticut economic development. By one measure from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank and advocacy group in Washington, D.C., precision manufacturing jobs create 7.4 positions in a regional economy for every new job.
West Hartford News
February 4, 2020
Know there’s a paywall but this is what my preview says: “That’s about double the next highest state loss, Texas’ 334,800 jobs, according to a report released Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute”
Los Angeles Times
February 4, 2020