That’s hardly news to Mark Price, a Pennsylvania-based labor economist who recently coauthored a report for the D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute called “The New Gilded Age,” which found that the top 1 percent of earners in Pennsylvania make 20 times the average for the other 99 percent, the 14th worst wealth gap among the 50 states. Federal as well as state tax policies have played a big role — although not exclusively — in making this gap so much wider since the 1970s. Price said it’s increasingly obvious that the torrent of economic expansion — “putting that fifth Starbucks on every corner,” he joked — promised by the GOP/Trump tax cut didn’t happen, and isn’t going to happen. “It’s financed an expansion in CEO compensation but not financed additional investment — that’s why we’re not seeing any wage growth,” he said.
The Inquirer
July 27, 2018
Rural Colorado is home to the most — and least — extreme income inequality in the state, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute. The key differentiation seems to be whether a county has a destination ski resort within its borders. The counties home to Aspen, Telluride, Steamboat Springs, and Vail top the EPI’s list, while Rio Blanco, Lake, and Teller counties are at the bottom. (whole story)
Colorado Public Radio
July 27, 2018
Income inequality in the United States continues to grow, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which used the latest available data to analyze how the top 1 percent and everyone else across the U.S. have fared between 1917 and 2015. “In 2015, the top 1 percent of families in the U.S. earned, on average, 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent — an increase from 2013, when they earned 25.3 times as much,” the EPI reports. (whole story)
CNBC
July 27, 2018
The latest edition of Prosperity Watch from Alexandra Sirota of the N.C. Budget and Tax Center highlights a new report from the Economic Policy Institute which confirms something that common sense long ago revealed — namely, the low and inadequate federal minimum wage is directly linked to North Carolina’s high poverty rate. (EPI cited throughout)
The Progressive Pulse
July 27, 2018
A new national study finds that the rich are getting richer and leaving everyone else behind.
The study by the Economic Policy Institute, called “The New Gilded Age,” finds that the gap between the top earners and average income has widened in every state since the 1970s, with Illinois ahead of the national average. Using what it claims is the same methodology employed by French economist Thomas Piketty in his landmark 2014 book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” the study found that the average salary of the top 1 percent of U.S. earners was $1.3 million in 2015, 26.3 times the average salary of everyone else: $50,000. Illinois was one of eight states to top that disparity, but it was closest to the national average. In Illinois, the average income for the top 1 percent was $1.4 million, 27 times greater than the average salary for the other 99 percent: $52,000. (whole story)
One Illinois
July 27, 2018
Income inequality has risen in every state since the 1970s, and in most states it has grown in the post-Great Recession years, according to a new study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The report titled “The New Gilded Age: Income Inequality in the U.S. by State, Metropolitan Area, and County” finds that in 2015, the top 1 percent of households in the US brought home an average of 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent — an increase from 2013, when they earned 25.3 times as much. Authors Estelle Sommeiller, a socio-economist at the Institute for Research in Economic and Social Sciences in France, and Mark Price, an economist at Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, lay out the average incomes of the top 1 percent, the income required to be in the top 1 percent, and the gap between the top 1 percent and the bottom 99 percent in every state and county, as well as in 916 metropolitan areas. (whole story)
The Free Press
July 27, 2018
According to researchers at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington, D.C.-based liberal think tank, the top 1 percent of American families took home approximately 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent in 2015— a 4 percent increase from 2013. The report titled “The New Gilded Age: Income inequality in the U.S. by state, metropolitan area, and county,” is authored by Estelle Sommeiller, socio-economist at the Institute for Research in Economic and Social Sciences in France and Mark Price, an economist at the Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who warned about the alarming trends in income inequality spreading across the country.
Zero Hedge
July 27, 2018
We do not always line up behind unions, because many of them have their own histories of racial discrimination that continue, in some cases, until the present day. But Right to Work (RTW) laws have been shown to diminish the wages of black workers (indeed, all workers), whether they are unionized or not. According to an Economic Policy Institute study of wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2010–2017, in RTW states, black workers’ wages are on average 11.5 percent less than in non-RTW states like Missouri, while white and Hispanic workers can expect to 15.1 percent and 8.3 percent less, respectively, if Prop A is passed. The impact is even more stark for women, with wages 19 percent lower for white women, 14 percent lower for Hispanic women and 13 percent lower for black women in RTW states.
The St. Louis American
July 27, 2018
As policymakers debate proposals to take food assistance or health coverage away from beneficiaries who don’t work a set number of hours or participate in qualifying work activities, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) paper shows why such proposals ignore the realities of the low-wage labor market and would do little to boost employment. These proposals, included in state Medicaid waivers and the SNAP provisions of the House-passed farm bill, would harm participants, including many workers, the paper explains. (whole blog)
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
July 27, 2018
A study of income data released by the liberal Economic Policy Institute just last week said that a household needed income of $421,926 to qualify as a member of the “1 percent.” Lee therefore qualifies as a “one-percenter” based on his salary alone, to say nothing of the bonuses he has received in years past, which themselves exceeded many families’ entire annual income.
The Federalist
July 26, 2018