The Hill
February 12, 2019
The decline in teacher pay has been a significant public policy issue highlighted in these waves of strikes and protests. A report published by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in September 2018 found teacher pay has eroded since the mid-1990’s, with teacher pay penalties – the percentage by which public school teachers are paid less than comparable workers – growing to 18.7% in 2017.
The Guardian
February 12, 2019
How hard? As any parent can tell you, child care is one of the biggest costs a family faces. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s state-by-state tables, in Alabama it’s $5,637 a year for an infant and an only slightly less daunting $4,871 for a 4-year-old. That’s 69 percent of the average rent and 33.7 percent less than the cost of in-state tuition at a four-year college. At the other end of the alphabet, West Virginia parents are worse off: For them, infant care, at $7,926, is 32 percent more than the cost of college. Pick a state at random and the results are no better. New York: $14,144, or double the cost of a year of college. Illinois: $12,964. California: $11,817. No wonder child care is affordable for only a small minority of families, meaning they pay 10 percent or less of their income for it: 17.8 percent of families in Minnesota, 18.7 percent in Massachusetts, 37.7 percent in Georgia. And that’s for just one child. Most families have more.
The New York Times
February 12, 2019
In order to determine what it costs to retire in every state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed annual expenses at the state level as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2017 Consumer Expenditure Survey. We then reviewed data from the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator for a couple 65 or older with no dependents, which measures the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living at the metropolitan level. Using the Consumer Expenditure Survey’s differences in budgetary needs between the average American and residents 65 and over, 24/7 Wall St. calculated the average annual retirement costs by state.
24/7 Wall St.
February 12, 2019
Last year D.C. made the news when the Economic Policy Institute released a report that stated that unemployment for African Americans in the District was the highest in the nation. Finding gainful employment, let alone a career, in the District can be hard. And returning citizens from the prison system face greater risk of unemployment and recidivism.
Afro
February 12, 2019
Some might argue that those rates are disparate because whites represent nearly 61 percent of the U.S. population, compared with Latinos’ 18 percent. But they’d be hard pressed to explain away the fact that the wage gaps between these two groups are so pronounced. And these gaps are due to discrimination, not educational attainment level or relevant work experience, according to an Economic Policy Institute paper from July 2018.
“Attaining a college education has not closed the average Hispanic-white wage gap,” the paper concluded. “In 2016, Hispanic women with … a bachelor’s degree or more education … made 36.4 percent less than white men with a college education, which is a just slightly narrower pay gap than in 1980 (37.7 percent) and is essentially the same as the pay gap between Hispanic women and white men with less than a high school education (those who have not obtained a high school diploma or equivalent) in 2016 (36.3 percent).”
The Register-Mail
February 12, 2019
Dr. Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told lawmakers there was no evidence that unemployment results from minimum-wage increases.
“Raising the national minimum wage is well overdue,” Zipperer said. “Workers today paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, after adjusting for inflation, are paid 29 percent less than their counterparts 50 years ago. This is despite the fact the economy’s capacity to deliver higher wages has doubled in the last 50 years, as measured by labor productivity, or the amount of output produced by workers.”
Financial Advisor
February 12, 2019
According to the Economic Policy Institute, if the minimum wage were set at $15 across the country, pay would increase for nearly 40 million workers, or 26.6 percent of the national workforce.
Daily Princetonian
February 12, 2019
El salario mínimo federal actual, se subió por última vez en 2009 y lleva años desconectado de la evolución de la productividad y de la inflación. Desde entonces los aumentos que ha habido han sido derivados de iniciativas estatales y municipales. De acuerdo con los cálculos de varios economistas, entre ellos Ben Zipperer del Economic Policy Institute (EPI), de haber seguido en paralelo la evolución de la productividad, estos serían actualmente de $20 la hora y se calcula que $22.19 en 2024, para cuando se quieren $15.
El Diario
February 12, 2019
Airbnb rentals reduce the supply of long-term rentals in communities, creating economic costs that outweigh the benefits, according to research presented by Economic Policy Institute Research Director Josh Bivens in a new paper. Local policymakers should pay heed, says Bivens, and certainly not change local regulations and tax structures to benefit Airbnb.
Real Trends
February 12, 2019