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.
Baraboo Nes Republic
September 10, 2019
Democrats pointed to an analysis from the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimating that unscrupulous businesses “stole” $419 million in wages and overtime pay from Michigan workers between 2013 and 2015. A Michigan State University study showed that worker misclassification costs governments $107 million per year in tax revenue.
AP
September 10, 2019
From 1979 to 2018, the hourly pay of typical workers has increased only 11.6% (after adjusting for inflation. At the same time, productivity rose nearly 70%, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
USA Today
September 10, 2019
On the other hand, according to the U.S. Economic Policy Institute, compensation for chief executives increased by 940% from 1978 to 2018, while an average worker’s pay rose by a miserable 12% over the same 40-year period.
Caller Times
September 10, 2019
According to research done by the Economic Policy Institute, blame for this generational net drop in wages can be laid at the feet of reflexive federal and corporate policies enacted since the 1970s. This includes failure to raise the minimum wage, which would be over $18, had it risen along with productivity, according to EPI.
The Bay City Beacon
September 10, 2019
According to the Economic Policy Institute, wage theft in the U.S. totals $15 billion. While wage theft is very prevalent, it is very often unreported. The part that troubles me most, not only as a worker but as a human, is that low-wage workers are the most frequent victims of wage theft. The workers who work paycheck-to-paycheck are a lot of those victims. Wage theft has such a snowball effect. The worker loses money and in turn the tax base is less. Workers who are victims of wage theft often must rely on public assistance. The top five industries for wage theft in West Virginia are full-service restaurants, commercial building construction, home care services, computer systems, and security guards and patrol services.
The Herald-Dispatch
September 10, 2019
Several studies have shown this type of activity is costing Michigan workers. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, workers in the state lost out on $429 million in wages and overtime pay from 2013 to 2015. Michigan State University published a study showing Michigan lost $107 million a year in tax revenue when businesses mis-classify workers as self-employed independent contractors or paid employees under the table.
UpNorthLive
September 10, 2019
The program’s qualifications are based on research by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia; Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Orange Dot Report 3.0; UVa President Jim Ryan’s community working group; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator; and the Economic Policy Institute Family Budget calculator.
The News Virginian
September 10, 2019
“A crucial measure of how far from full recovery the economy remains is the growth of nominal wages (wages not adjusted for inflation). Nominal wage growth since the recovery officially began in mid-2009 has been low and flat,” states a report on wage growth from the Economic Policy Institute. “This isn’t surprising — the weak labor market of the last seven years has put enormous downward pressure on wages. Employers don’t have to offer big wage increases to get and keep the workers they need. And this remains true even as a jobs recovery has consistently forged ahead in recent years.”
Additionally, executive compensation is totally out of balance with workers’ average wages. A report from the EPI from 2017 found that CEOs in American’s largest firms made an average of $15.6 million in compensation in 2016. That comes out to 271 times the annual average pay of a typical worker.
PayScale
September 10, 2019
Even before Trump was elected president, labor advocates had long lamented an NLRB process weighted towards employers who have the power of the paycheck and an array of tactics to shut down union organizing drives. A 2009 study, published by the liberal Economic Policy Institute think tank, found that during 57 percent of union election processes, employers threatened to shut down their workplaces; and during 34 percent of those organizing drives, employers fired workers and used one-on-one meetings with employees to threaten them.
The American Prospect
September 10, 2019