DENVER — Nearly half of U.S. families have zero retirement savings, according to a recent Economic Policy Institute report, and Colorado is taking steps to help workers avoid working late into their sunset years.
Public News Service
January 8, 2020
Older workers and those over 50 are more likely to work as independent contractors, separate research from the progressive Economic Policy Institute, a labor policy think tank, concluded. The share of people working as independent contractors, freelancers and other categories of on-call workers who were ages 55 to 64 increased to 22.9% in 2017 from 18.8% in 2005. For people aged 65 and older, the figure rose to 14.1% from 8.5%.
MarketWatch
January 8, 2020
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute in collaboration with the Center for Popular Democracy exposes the fraud: Despite the Trump administration’s claims of success, the TCJA:
- Did NOT increase wages for working people. Real (inflation-adjusted) wage growth accelerated in 2018 relative to 2017, similar one-year accelerations have been seen in recent years. Further, wage growth in 2019 has decisively decelerated. Other influences pushing up wage growth in 2018—tight labor markets and higher state-level minimum wages—can fully explain the mild pickup in wage growth for that year.
- Failed to spur business investment. There was no uptick in business investment in 2018 and significant declines in the six months of available data in 2019 when investment absolutely cratered, with out-right declines in the last nine months of available data.
- Corporate tax revenues have plummeted. Estimates show that corporate tax revenue has declined more than originally anticipated. The statutory corporate income tax rate was decreased from 35 to 21 percent. Loopholes and widespread evasion led to U.S. corporations facing an effective tax rate much lower than 35 percent even before the TCJA was passed. By slashing the statutory rate and doing little to close loopholes (while in fact introducing new ones), the TCJA has cut the effective rate faced by U.S. corporations almost in half.
- Boosted stock buybacks. Stock buybacks rose more than 50 percent to $560 billion in 2018—and look on-pace to hit $500 billion again in 2019. Most corporations have passed TCJA tax savings on to their wealthy shareholders instead of investing in the workers who are increasing the companies’ bottom lines.
- Redesigned International Tax Rules. U.S. corporations are no longer required to pay U.S. taxes on income earned in other countries, unless this income exceeds a global benchmark rate of profit. The TCJA allows companies to use foreign tax credits to offset the taxes they may owe if their income exceeds this global benchmark.
Repealed the Corporate Minimum Tax. Previously, there was a 20 percent corporate alternative minimum tax. This tax required profitable corporations to pay at least some share of taxes on their profits in a given year, but was repealed in the TCJA.
Southern Illinois Labor Tribune
January 8, 2020
After the law’s passage, companies announced worker bonuses with much fanfare. But those one-time bonuses amounted to only two cents per hour on average, according to the Economic Policy Institute, and did not provide lasting employee benefits. “Businesses have been electing to give workers short-term payouts for retention and morale, rather than longer-term wage increases the economy had experienced in previous decades,” according to a June 2018 article in the Wall Street Journal.
Capital & Main
January 8, 2020
“Over the last several decades, CEO pay has grown much faster than profits, the pay of the top 0.1 percent of wage earners, and the wages of college graduates,” Economic Policy Institute’s Lawrence Mishel and Jessica Schieder wrote in their analysis of CEO pay in 2018. “CEOs are getting more because of their power to set pay, not because they are more productive or have special talents or more education.”
Money and Markets
January 8, 2020
GUESTS
Adriana Kugler, Professor of economics and foreign policy, Georgetown University; former Chief Economist, United States Department of Labor (Obama Administration 2011 – 2013)
David Cooper, Senior economic analyst, Economic Policy Institute; deputy director, Economic Analysis and Research Network; @metaCoop
Sasha-Ann Simons, Race & Identity Reporter, WAMU 88.5; @SashaAnnSimons
Alabama Public Radio
January 8, 2020
A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would lift earnings for more than 33 million workers across the country by almost $3,000 a year.
Public News Service
January 8, 2020
- The leisure and hospitality industry has the highest percentage of workers at or below minimum wage. (Economic Policy Institute, Labor Day 2019)
The Virginia Gazette
January 8, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute, a champion of raising the national minimum wage to $15, said workers in every region will soon need that amount to maintain a modest but adequate standard of living.
Daily Press
January 6, 2020
About 8 percent of Maine’s 679,000 workers earned at or below minimum wage in 2018, according to available state labor data. The Economic Policy Institute, a national left-leaning nonprofit focused on issues affecting lower- and middle-income workers, puts that figure much higher, estimating 102,900 workers in Maine will directly benefit from the 2020 wage increase because they currently earn less than $12 an hour. That will translate into a pay jump of $1,266, on average, for those workers during the year, according to the analysis.
Nationwide, nearly 7 million workers in 22 states will see their pay increase because of changes in the state or local minimum wage, the Economic Policy Institute reported.
Sun Journal
January 6, 2020