Minnesota’s labor policies and labor market have delivered bigger gains for working families than Wisconsin’s have. Recent research by economist David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C., makes abundantly clear that in the postrecession recovery period, Minnesota’s economy is both stronger than Wisconsin’s and growing more equitably, thanks to progressive policies focused on expanding opportunities for working families, such as investing in our schools, our infrastructure and, yes, raising our statewide minimum wage in 2014. EPI’s analysis found that by virtually every economic indicator available, Minnesota outpaced Wisconsin: number of jobs, wage growth and making progress in closing the gender pay gap, to name a few.
The Star Tribune
July 26, 2018
This seems like a lot, but that salary on its own surprisingly wouldn’t put the justices in the top 1 percent. In 2016, the Economic Policy Institute calculated that a household in the top 1 percent of U.S. income earners overall included those making $389,436, before taxes. And that’s just the U.S. average. In Connecticut, for example, income must be at least $659,979 to qualify for the top 1 percent.
Bustle
July 26, 2018
That’s right, it’s your own backyard. What brings these communities together is a dubious commonality. According to the Economic Policy Institute, they are the top five metropolitan regions in which the one-percenters have seized more wealth than the national peak of income inequality in 1928. That year shouldn’t just ring bells, it should set off alarms. Just a few months later, the Stock Market crashed.
The Stamford Advocate
July 26, 2018
A recent study found that Connecticut ranked third nationwide in overall income inequality. The research done by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington D.C. based nonprofit, was based on 2015 IRS tax filings and measured each state’s top one percent earners versus the other 99 percent. (whole story)
WNPR
July 26, 2018
The top 1 percent of families on Kauai gobble up 21 percent of the income. That’s according to a newly-released Economic Policy Institute report on income inequality nationwide. The study ranked Kauai as the most unequal county in the state. There, the top 1 percent make 26 times what the bottom 99 percent take in. The average income of the top 1 percent on Kauai: $1.4 million. The average income of the bottom 99 percent: $55,057
Hawaii News Now
July 26, 2018
A new study revealed that the gap between Charlottesville’s richest and poorest workers is one of the largest in the United States. The 2015 study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute concluded that income inequality in Charlottesville ranks high among the rest of the country. Charlottesville ranked 25th overall out of 916 metropolitan areas, one spot behind Los Angeles, California. (whole story)
NBC 29
July 26, 2018
New York City is at the top of virtually every list of the cities with the most inequality. A recent one from the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School put New York fourth behind Atlanta, New Orleans and Miami and just ahead of Dallas, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago. But within New York, the differences are very stark. The Economic Policy Institute just released an updated study of inequality in every state, metropolitan area and county which shows that in New York it is concentrated in Manhattan and is getting worse in gentrifying Brooklyn. The other three boroughs look like the rest of America. (whole story)
Crain’s New York Business
July 25, 2018
In contrast to Republican economic policies and budgets that have produced falling wages while deepening inequality, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found in an analysis on Tuesday that the People’s Budget would “improve the economic well-being of low- and middle-income families” by making badly needed public investments, allowing the government to negotiate drug prices, and bolstering the safety net.
Common Dreams
July 25, 2018
The gap between the richest and poorest Americans continues to widen, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute. It analyzes tax data going back to 1917 and shows that, since the 1970s, the majority of Americans have taken home an ever smaller portion of the nation’s overall wealth. The richest 1 percent of Americans now makes, on average, 26 times what the other 99 percent of people in the country earn annually, says Mark Price, a labor economist at the Keystone Research Center and one of the report’s authors. “When incomes are growing much faster at the top, that means the total pot of income available in society is concentrating in a smaller and smaller group of people’s hands,” Price states. (whole story)
Public News Service
July 25, 2018
Economic inequality may play into the rising cost of education, health care and housing. Thanks to their growing incomes, the top 1 percent of earners have the financial flexibility to buy housing in desirable cities like New York and San Francisco, putting upward pressure on home prices, for instance. America is nearing a level of income inequality that hasn’t been seen since 1928. The richest residents in fives states and 30 cities have already surpassed that threshold, the Economic Policy Institute found in a recent study.
CBS Moneywatch
July 25, 2018