Income creates a disparity in every U.S. city, but the gap is markedly bigger in some areas versus others. A 2018 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently identified U.S. states, cities and counties most divided by wealth. The principal factors among many the were average income of the top 1%, the average income of the bottom 99% and the ratio of the top’s income to the bottom’s. Of the more than 900 metro areas in the EPI study, we narrowed the list down to only those with populations greater than 100,000. There are definitely some noticeable patterns. Of the top 13 metropolitan areas on the list, six of them are in Florida. Another three of the 13 are located in California. Two are located in the greater New York City metro area. And the last two don’t fall into a bucket: Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Ark.-Mo. And Las Vegas. No cities have the exact same income discrepancy — aka top-to-bottom ratio — but the underlying problem is apparent in every one: a withering middle class. (whole story)
Forbes
August 29, 2018
Whether this will be enough to satisfy longtime critics of the trade pact remains to be seen. Longtime NAFTA skeptic Robert Scott of the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute told me there was little sign Trump’s team had made progress on key issues: “It’s a press release in search of a real deal.” To sell it, Trump stuck mostly to bluster and hyperbole during his brief talk. The president got things started by announcing that it was a “big day” for trade, then puzzlingly suggested that NAFTA was ready for a name change. “They used to call it NAFTA. We’re going to call it the United States–Mexico Trade Agreement,” he said. “We’ll get rid of the name NAFTA. It has a bad connotation because the United States was hurt badly by NAFTA for many years. And now it’s a very good deal for both countries.”
Slate
August 28, 2018
But critics of the deal suggest it has led to significant job losses within the US market, with companies shifting operations to Mexico due to lower production costs. According to the US-based Economic Policy Institute, about 700,000 jobs have been lost nationwide due to growing trade deficits with Mexico caused by NAFTA.
Al Jazeera
August 28, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute reported earlier this month that the average CEO of the 350 largest firms in the U.S. pocketed $18.9 million in 2017, a 17.6 percent pay increase over 2016. At the same time, typical worker compensation remained flat, rising merely 0.3 percent. If you do some quick math, dividing 17.6 percent by 0.3 percent, you might conclude that CEO pay in 2017 increased about 60 times faster than worker pay. (whole story)
Inequality.org
August 28, 2018
But a report by the Economic Policy Institute found earlier this year that the economic boom a city expects from Amazon warehouses–job growth and more consumer spending–don’t seem to pay off. “What we found is that it is true that Amazon create warehousing jobs. But that doesn’t translate into a net addition or total number of jobs added to the economy,” Ben Zipperer, co-author of the February 2018 EPI report entitled “Unfulfilled Promises.” (Ben quoted throughout)
Bakersfield Now
August 28, 2018
Average compensation for top U.S. executives exploded to nearly $19 million in 2017, up almost 18 percent from 2016, a new report says. If you don’t remember getting an 18 percent raise last year, it’s because you probably didn’t. The report by the liberal Economic Policy Institute shows typical wages remained virtually unchanged during that time. This has driven the pay difference between people at the top and those who work for them to its widest gap in a decade. (Whole editorial)
St. Louis Post Dispatch
August 27, 2018
California, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania have passed legislation that puts them on a path to reach a $15 minimum wage for state employees, but none have reached that goal yet. The North Carolina decision is “unexpected,” says David Cooper, senior economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute and an expert on minimum wage issues. “You don’t expect to hear about minimum wage increases happening in conservative places.” (Dave quoted throughout)
Governing
August 27, 2018
Meanwhile, the average CEO pay among America’s 350 largest publicly-held companies jumped to $19 million in 2017, an 18 percent raise over 2016, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The S&P 500 only went up 14.5 percent during the same period, while the average America saw a 2 percent raise. (CEO pay data cited throughout)
The Houston Chronicle
August 27, 2018
Labor law in the U.S. has been broken down over the past several decades until you might think it nearly nonexistent. And yet a new wave of worker resistance and political interest in labor makes it a good time to push for a reimagining and rebuilding of the laws that govern the workplace. The Economic Policy Institute has just published a new agenda for doing just that—called “First Day Fairness.” I talked with Celine McNicholas, one of the authors of the report, about the movement that will be necessary to rewrite the rules to give workers an equal chance.
The Progressive
August 27, 2018
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that compensation for chief executive officers at the top 350 publicly traded companies in the U.S. soared last year by 17.6 percent to almost $19 million a year. That’s 312 times what the average worker at those companies made in 2017. If you’re wondering, the compensation of rank-and-file worker rose only 0.3 percent at these firms.
Teamsters
August 27, 2018