Educators may not go into teaching expecting to get rich, but it’s a job that historically has supported a middle-class lifestyle. That may be harder to achieve today, thanks to years of eroding pay for teachers, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Teachers now earn 11.1 percent less than comparable professionals, representing a record pay gap between educators and other college-educated workers, according to the study. (whole story)
CBS Moneywatch
September 5, 2018
Teachers just got another way to make the case that, as a group, they are making too little money. Public school teachers earned average weekly wages of $1,137 in 2017, while all other college graduates working full time earned $1,476 per week, according to a report out today from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. (whole story)
Money Magazine
September 5, 2018
Newly minted college graduates considering the teaching profession probably don’t expect lucrative salaries. But they might not realize how big a financial hit they face: Teachers now earn about 20 percent less than other college-educated workers, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, a union-backed think tank. (whole story)
Chalkbeat
September 5, 2018
This is according to an extensive report on inequality from economists Estelle Sommeiller and Mark Price, published in July by the Economic Policy Institute. The authors built on top of research from economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez and used IRS data, finding that in 2015, five states, 30 metro areas, and 78 counties had exceeded the previous national record for share of income by the 1%, at 23.9% – a record set in 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression.
The divide between the rich and poor in the US has continued on an upward trend since the 1970s, and we live in a time where economic growth is disproportionately benefitting the wealthiest Americans. (whole story)
Business Insider
September 4, 2018
The top 1 per cent – it is a phrase you hear a lot, especially since politicians like Bernie Sanders began repeating it at rallies. But what does being in the exclusive club actually look like? Researchers from the Economic Policy Institute found out the minimum a person would have to earn to count themselves among the top percent in each state, and uncovered a discrepancy even among the very richest. Mississippi is where the bar to entry drops lowest, with someone having to earn just over $250,000 per year to qualify as among the most valuable in the state. (whole story)
The Daily Mail
September 4, 2018
With Democrats looking primed to retake the House, there could be a new—and rare—opportunity to rethink labor laws in the next session of Congress. Numerous policy proposals are already making the rounds, but as progressive Democrats shop around for new labor reforms, where will they turn? Last week, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a 15-point policy agenda to reverse the decades-long erosion of workers’ rights in the U.S. Celine McNicholas, director of labor law and policy at EPI and one of the coauthors of the agenda, says that instead of the “magic bullet” reform that lawmakers might be searching for, there is no quick-fix solution. Getting decent wages back into the pockets of workers and giving workers more power at the bargaining table will take a comprehensive reform package, she says. (whole story)
The American Prospect
August 31, 2018
“There are a lot of people who have been working very hard on the renegotiation of Nafta,” said Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think-tank that draws some of its funding from labor unions. “But I don’t think that’s going to bring jobs home in vast numbers. I just don’t see it.”
Bloomberg
August 29, 2018
Such agreements have all come under harsher scrutiny in recent years amid the rise of the #MeToo movement and the sluggishness of wage growth. Last week, the Economic Policy Institute, whose board is chaired by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, released a proposed workplace reform agendafor Congress that includes banning forced arbitration, as well as almost all non-competes.
Bloomberg
August 29, 2018
Overall, a separate study from the Economic Policy Institute found that in 2017 “average compensation for CEOs of the top 350 publicly traded firms increased 17.6 percent to $18.9 million” and that for those firms, “the ratio of CEO-to-worker compensation rose to 312-to-1—far greater than the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965 and more than five times greater than the 58-to-1 ratio in 1989.”
Capital & Main
August 29, 2018
A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan Washington think-tank, states that the heads of the 350 largest U.S. Corporations had a raise in salary of 17.6 percent in 2017 which resulted in an average of $18.9 million in take-home pay. The average worker’s salary barely moved last year with an average increase of just 0.3 percent. This means that the big boss to worker compensation ratio in that country is 312 to 1, which is 5 times higher than the 58 to 1 ratio of 1989. Executive pay packets in the United States have grown almost 72 percent since 2009. Executive pay is rising faster than stock prices or corporative profits, having increased by 1,070 percent between 1978 and 2017, compared to a 637 percent hike in the S & P Index.
Cumberland News Now
August 29, 2018