The Missouri Times
August 6, 2018
Productivity and wages: Cutting-edge work by the Economic Policy Institute has documented the split between productivity growth and median compensation, and the role of weakened worker bargaining power in this critically important dimension of inequality.
Washington Post
August 6, 2018
But Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute noted that productivity growth isn’t the only thing that’s low compared to the late ’90s. The rate of price growth is also low, which suggests too much labor market slack. The collapse of employer investment in worker training and the spread of absurd employer demands for college degrees in all sorts of occupations also both point to a labor market in which employers can still afford to be picky. The unemployment rate may be the same as it was in the ’90s, but labor force participation remains lower. Furman’s own CEA concluded the drop couldn’t be chalked up purely to demographics, and was partly driven by the poor post-2008 economy. It’s hard to square all this evidence with the idea that labor markets really are as tight now as they were in the late ’90s.
The Washington Post
August 6, 2018
With more job opportunities should come higher wages. That link isn’t guaranteed, especially as overall wage growth has been tepid throughout the economic recovery. But in fact, less-educated workers not only enjoyed the fastest wage gains in 2017, they were the only cohort that received any wage gains at all, as college-educated workers actually saw their wages drop, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.
The Boston Globe
August 6, 2018
Other cities, especially major hubs like Washington, D.C. and New York City, could cost parents well into the six figures to raise a family, according to a separate report by the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute.
MarketWatch
August 6, 2018
“Our Family Budget Calculator goes beyond traditional measures like the poverty line to paint a detailed picture of what families need to get by,” EPI Senior Economist Elise Gould said in a release. “The latest update provides even greater detail on how costs vary throughout the country. It is above all else a tool for policymakers to advocate for ways to raise wages and make their communities more affordable.” (whole story, Zane quoted)
New York City Patch
August 6, 2018
Pitkin County has the highest income inequality in the state of Colorado, with the top 1 percent making 72.2 times more than the bottom 99 percent, according to a just-published report from the Economic Policy Institute, a think thank based in Washington D.C. In data from “The New Gilded Age: Income Inequality in the U.S. by State, Metropolitan Area and County,” the average income of the top 1 percent in Pitkin County was $6,620,969. The average income of the bottom 99 percent was $91,714. (whole story)
Aspen Daily News
August 6, 2018
“Poor wage growth has persisted even as we’ve hit 4 percent unemployment, and that’s particularly true for workers in the middle,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. Economists cite a number of factors, including a decline in union jobs and fewer opportunities to move up within the industry. Add to that high turnover rates and a trend toward part-time work, and the result has been a growing group of retail workers who may be making higher minimum wages but continue to feel stuck in low-paying positions. Wages for the country’s lowest-paid workers have increased 0.7 percent per year since 2007, while those in the middle — the 50th percentile — have gained 0.3 percent annually, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Economic Policy Institute. (Also worth noting: The country’s highest-paid workers, those in the top 5 percentile, received wage increases of 1.3 percent per year during that period.)
The Washington Post
August 3, 2018
RTW laws prohibit “fair-share fees.” A report by the Economic Policy Institute found that “unions in RTW states are the only organizations in the country that are forced to provide all benefits for free to people who opt not to pay for them,” which leads to a decline in union participation and thus unions. The decline in unions is what leads to lower wages across the board, according to Economic Policy Institute, which typically leans in favor of unions. (EPI cited throughout)
The Missouri Times
August 3, 2018
Chances are if you’re reading this article and you work for a private company, you probably signed one too (check our interactive tool below to see if your employer has one). About half of non-unionized workers at US companies are subject to these agreements — more than double the share in the early 2000s. America’s most well-known companies, including Walmart, Starbucks, Macy’s, Uber, Google, and McDonald’s, now require all their workers, or some of them, to sign them. (Full disclosure: Vox Media does too.) The rise of mandatory arbitration has made it nearly impossible for workers to seek legal justice for wage theft, overtime violations, and job discrimination. This secretive system also has the potential to hamper the #MeToo movement. Women are coming forward, often for the first time, with stories of widespread sexual harassment at work, only to discover that they’ve been shut out of the court system because they signed an arbitration agreement. The practice is particularly harmful to women and black employees, as they are more likely to be subjected to arbitration agreements because they make up a large share of workers in the industries that require arbitration the most: education and health care.
VOX
August 3, 2018