There are two arguments for why political candidates should not center inequality in the economic narrative they present to voters: an inequality focus is bad economics, or it’s not a short-term electoral winner. Both lack merit.
USA Today
January 21, 2020
In the mid-20th century, federal, state and local governments pursued explicit racial policies to create, enforce and sustain residential segregation. The policies were so powerful that, as a result, even today blacks and whites rarely live in the same communities and have little interracial contact or friendships outside the workplace.
The New York Times
January 21, 2020
The families of child care workers in the U.S. are twice as likely to live in poverty as those of other workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Yakima Herald
January 21, 2020
The new research from the Economic Policy Institute says efforts to expand access to early education have focused on affordability for families, which has been substantially funded by keeping teacher pay and support very low.
Public News Service
January 21, 2020
In Pennsylvania, early childhood education teachers who have bachelor’s degrees earn 22% less than K-8 teachers, according to the report, which was produced by left-leaning think tank the Economic Policy Institute and University of California Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
January 21, 2020
Parents in the U.S. pay a staggering amount for care for their young children—and here, as in so many other areas, the support they get from their government falls short of what peer nations provide. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows just how big the problem is, and what it’s costing the economy.
Daily Kos
January 21, 2020
Josh Bivens at Economic Policy Institute writes—Yes, David Brooks, there really is a class war:
New York Times columnist David Brooks, in an article sub-titled “No, Virginia, there is no class war,” recently trotted out an old argument about why wage growth has been so sluggish for so many U.S. workers for so long: they’re just not very good workers. Specifically, he argues that “wages are still mostly determined by skills and productivity.” Ergo, if there is growing inequality in wages, it must be driven by inequality in workers’ own productivity.
Daily Kos
January 21, 2020
Public
January 21, 2020
“As unions have declined, its been an important contributor to the rise of inequality and wage stagnation to those but the highest paid workers,” said Heidi Shierholz, the policy director of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Labor Department during the Obama administration.
Market Insider
January 21, 2020
To illustrate the dollars-and-cents reality of the issue, the letter points out that the annual mean wage for a graduate teaching assistant in the New York City metropolitan area is $38,370 – well below what the Economic Policy Institute considers an adequate standard of living for the region ($51,323).
Cape May County Herald
January 21, 2020