The country’s severe shortage of qualified public elementary and secondary school teachers, which a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report details, demonstrates states’ need to raise adequate revenue not only to boost teacher pay but also to provide the resources that high-quality schools require.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
April 26, 2019
It’s not just striking and protesting teachers who insist that they are underpaid. Across the political spectrum, researchers agree that teachers earn lower salaries than workers with similar educational backgrounds. The Economic Policy Institute calls the discrepancy a “teacher pay penalty” and pegs it at more than 18%, noting that even with more generous public employee benefits, the total compensation gap is still 11% — a record high. Eric Hanushek of the Hoover Institution and two colleagues
The Eagle
April 26, 2019
There remains a supply gap of about 110,000 teachers nationwide as of last school year, primarily because more teachers are quitting or switching schools, and fewer people are entering the profession. Emma García coauthored the report from the Economic Policy Institute. She said a lot of the problems could be fixed with more investment to raise salaries, lower classroom sizes and better fund schools overall.
El Semanario
April 26, 2019
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average cost for full-time childcare can range anywhere from $4,000 to $22,600 per year—far out of reach for most American families. A serious proposal—say, Elizabeth Warren’s actual plan to provide parents with affordable (and depending on your income, free) childcare by taxing the wealthiest Americans—must tackle the rising costs of childcare, at a time when wages are stagnant. (Warren’s proposal, in contrast to Ivanka’s, would cost about $70 billion per year.)
Jezebel
April 26, 2019
Arbitration cases have taken on increased significance in recent years because of added attention to worker disputes over sexual harassment in the workplace. A 2018 report by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found that the share of workers subject to forced arbitration agreements has doubled in recent decades and now includes more than half the country’s workforce.
CNBC
April 26, 2019
More than half of U.S. workers have been forced to sign contracts with arbitration clauses, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute. In private arbitration, the deck is stacked against the worker: The employer sets the rules and likely chooses the arbitrator. Studies show that workers win less frequently and receive lower awards in arbitration. Arbitrators report feeling pressure to rule in favor of the company that hired them. One study by the Social Science Research Network estimates that when workers sign forced arbitration clauses, 98 percent of legal claims that would’ve been brought in court never see the light of day. Forced arbitration makes it easier for unscrupulous corporations to get away with wage theft, sexual harassment and other misconduct.
Oregon Live
April 26, 2019
“It really doesn’t make any sense to bring in people for year-round, permanent jobs in a temporary status,” argues Daniel Costa, Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research, Economic Policy Institute. He says it’s not unheard of for farmers to bring in the same immigrant workers for 20 years or more, but they’re perpetually only visitors.
Marketplace
April 26, 2019
EPI’s Daniel Costa is featured at 6:58.
BBC
April 26, 2019
According to the Economic Policy Institute, when factoring in the value of stock options, CEO pay in 2017 averaged out to $13.3 million. Separate 2017 analysis by Institutional Shareholder Services determined average CEO pay at S&P 500 companies to be $13.6 million.
Waste Dive
April 26, 2019
Unscrupulous businesses stole an estimated $429 million in wages and overtime pay from Michigan workers between 2013 and 2015, impacting more than 2.8 million workers, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Meanwhile, Michigan taxpayers are shortchanged $107 million a year in revenue through tax fraud when businesses misclassify workers, by reporting employees as self-employed independent contractors or paying them off the books as a way to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, a Michigan State University study found. According to the U.S. Treasury, the United States loses $45.6 billion every year because of payroll fraud, which affects one in five U.S. households.
Michigan.gov
April 26, 2019