The report is released annually ahead of Labor Day to highlight the economic realities of working families throughout the state. Data is collected with assistance from the Economic Policy Institute.
Ellwood City Ledger
September 6, 2019
An Economic Policy Institute study shows that the dramatic increase in CEO compensation has a large impact on increasing inequality–worker pay could have doubled without the rise in CEO income
Julia Wolfe joined EPI as a research assistant in 2017. She works with EPI’s economists and researchers to analyze current labor market trends, particularly as they relate to education, inequality, and wage growth.
The Real News Network
September 6, 2019
Economic Policy Institute—Black workers endure persistent racial disparities in employment outcomes:
Black workers are twice as likely to be unemployed as white workers overall (6.4% vs. 3.1%). Even black workers with a college degree are more likely to be unemployed than similarly educated white workers (3.5% vs. 2.2%). When they are employed, black workers with a college or advanced degree are more likely than their white counterparts to be underemployed when it comes to their skill level—almost 40% are in a job that typically does not require a college degree, compared with 31% of white college grads. This relatively high black unemployment and skills-based underemployment suggests that racial discrimination remains a failure of an otherwise tight labor market.racial
Daily Kos
September 6, 2019
Recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that the largest 350 corporations paid their CEOs an average of $14 million a year (before stock options), and such generous pay at the top is also reflected in the next levels. Millions upon millions in executive pay means less profit for shareholders (and influences the salaries demanded by other management talent, like university administrators and nonprofit executives.)
Arkansas Business
September 5, 2019
The standoff is among the latest instances highlighting a system that funnels the wealth created by workers upwards to the elite. The statistics are startling. Incomes of the top 1 percent of U.S. households have grown more than seven times more quickly than those of the bottom 20 percent of households over the past four decades. CEO compensation rose by 940 percent since 1978, the Economic Policy Institute reports. Meanwhile, the typical worker’s wages grew by only 12 percent.
Truthout
September 5, 2019
On Tuesday, the D.C.-based liberal think tanks Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) co-sponsored a daylong “Taxing the (Very) Rich” conference featuring a roster of notable speakers and discussion panelists. Economist, New York Times columnist, and progressive hero Paul Krugman delivered the morning keynote address. “We turned ourselves away from a plutocratic society once (after World War II) and we can do it again,” he assured an early-arriving audience. In the afternoon, Nickel and Dimed author and activist Barbara Ehrenreich opened her talk with the greeting, “Thank you for being class traitors!”
Medium
September 5, 2019
Between the years 2009 and 2015, the earnings of those in the top 1 percent increased by nearly 34 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute, while the earnings of the remaining 99 percent grew at only 10.3 percent. This has widened income inequality in the nation, according to the institute.
The Center Square
September 5, 2019
One woman says she’s paid at least $185,000 so far to arbitrate her sexual harassment claim against her former employer. In contrast, she notes that she would have paid only $450 to file her claim in court. In addition, according to the Economic Policy Institute, employees are less likely to win a case before an arbitrator than before a judge—and don’t get as big of a payout if they do. Check out the infographic below (but keep in mind that this is just a simple comparison and that there are other factors to consider).
ClassAction.org
September 5, 2019
How much would it cost for California to provide high-quality early care and education? According to a new report by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley and the Economic Policy Institute, California should be spending at least $30,000 per child enrolled in child care and preschool. That’s almost four times as much as the state currently spends on children in public preschool. The researchers say in order to provide high-quality early education, lead teachers should be paid $77,214 a year, and there would need to be almost three times as many early childhood teachers in the state as there are currently.
EdSource
September 5, 2019
Perhaps surprising no one, the Economic Policy Institute found that the problem is particularly present in school districts that are underfunded. A lack of money in the district doesn’t just affect salary, but quality of classroom and education materials, technology access — and, in high poverty areas, can even affect the quality of students.
Times West Virginian
September 5, 2019