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Massachusetts has the sixth-biggest gap between its highest-paid residents and everyone else, according to a new report, with the state’s top 1 percent of families in 2015 earning 31 times what the average of the bottom 99 percent made. The analysis, out Thursday from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, cites tax data to examine income inequality by state, metro area and county. Its methodology uses income before taxes and transfers, like unemployment benefits. The average income of the top 1 percent of families in Massachusetts in 2015 was $1.9 million, according to EPI. That’s about 31 times the average income of everyone else that year, which was around $62,000. (whole story)
WBUR July 20, 2018 -
All politics, the old political saw goes, is local. By the same token, all economics may be local, too. We don’t experience our economy as a national or a global phenomenon. We experience our economic life in much more localized spheres. Researchers at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based progressive think tank, have understood this reality for decades now. They’ve supplemented their nationally focused work with a series of landmark collaborations that explore how our unequal economic order is playing out at the subnational level. (whole story)
Inequality.org July 20, 2018 -
Who is the “1 percent?” In Louisiana, it’s a household earning at least $318,393 per year. A new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute offers easy-to-read data on income inequality (the unequal distribution of income among people who are making money) throughout the U.S., examined by state, city and metropolitan area. Authors Estelle Sommeiller and Mark Price echo the conclusion of many other economists: in most states and nationwide, incomes for a very small group of households are growing much faster than incomes for the remaining 99 percent of households. In nine states, just 1 percent of families has captured half or more of all income growth since the Great Recession. (whole story)
The Advocate July 20, 2018 -
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute highlighting wage disparities between whites and Hispanics across the United States shows a wage gap that has remained steady since 2000. Local data show that the wage gap is even wider in Oklahoma, something local agencies are working to address.
In 2017, Hispanic men working full time made 14.9 percent less in hourly wages than comparable white men, while Hispanic women made 33.1 percent less than comparable white men, according to the report. (whole story)
Tulsa World July 20, 2018 -
The Economic Policy Institute researched the impact of RTW across the nation and compared the quality of life in non-RTW states. The report highlights the differences in wages and quality of life based on race and gender. Black workers, already suffering in low-wage jobs, should expect no breaks. The only breaks will be those for the rich and greedy.
The St. Louis American July 20, 2018 -
MIXED REVIEWS FOR WORKFORCE PLEDGES: President Donald Trump gathered business executives at the White House Thursday to sign workforce training pledges. At the same session, Trump inked an executive order to create a new workforce task force. The East Room event took on the format of a fundraising dinner, with Trump walking around the room and soliciting training pledges from executives at companies such as FedEx, General Motors, IBM and Microsoft (“Give my regards,” Trump said to Home Depot CEO Craig Menear, without mentioning anyone in particular). Amid the handshakes, Trump’s comments 11 months ago about “both sides” sharing the blame for a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville — and the corporate exodus from the president’s business councils that followed — seemed a distant memory. Trump secured guarantees from nearly two dozen businesses and trade groups to train a collective 3.8 million workers, according to the White House. Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the initiative would “help close the skills gap and build a workforce that supports our robust economy.” But responses from other business groups were more subdued. Robert Crestani, president of the International Franchise Association, said that by focusing on higher-level skills, the White House’s plan misses the point that even the most basic skills, such as operating a cash register, need to be taught. (IFA didn’t participate in Thursday’s pledge.) Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the White House’s efforts will do little to increase stagnant wages for workers, a problem that has baffled economic experts. “If they are trying to do this as a response to the weak wage growth, they are totally just trying to solve a very real problem … by addressing something that’s not part of the problem at all,” Shierholz said. Read Trump’s executive order here.
Politico Pro July 20, 2018 -
One of the most punishing ramifications of the gig economy is the outsourcing of typical benefits on the grounds that gig workers are not true employees — a significant financial toll for those contractors that is not immediately apparent from the start of the gig. Though Uber drivers nationwide earn $11.77 per hour, accounting for outside costs like health insurance drops that wage to $9.21 per hour, according to a May 2018 report from the Economic Policy Institute — below the minimum wage in 29 U.S. states.
The Outline July 20, 2018 -
The top 1 percent in Rhode Island earn 18.2 times more than the bottom 99 percent and have seen dramatic increase in their share of income growth in recent decades compared to earlier periods In The New Gilded Age: Income Inequality in the United States by State, Metropolitan Area, and County, a new paper published by the Washington DC based Economic Policy Institute for the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN), Mark Price, an economist at the Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Estelle Sommeiller, a socio-economist at France’s Institute for Research in Economic and Social Sciences, detail the incomes of the top 1 percent and the bottom 99 percent by state, metropolitan area, and county. (whole story)
Uprise Rhode Island July 20, 2018 -
The United States has entered a new Gilded Age. And, according to the leftist Economic Policy Institute (EPI), income inequality is so bad that we might return to the days when the Vanderbilts were building the Breakers and the Biltmore while shoeless children swept chimneys and toiled on the slag heap. “There has been vast and widespread growth in income inequality in every corner of the country,” EPI reported. “Overall, the growth in incomes of the bottom 99 percent has improved since our last report, in step with a strengthening economy, but the gap between the top 1 percent and everyone else still grew in the majority of states we examine here.” (whole story)
The New American July 20, 2018 -
According to a paper released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the wealth gap in West Virginia is fourth smallest, by ratio, in the U.S. behind Alaska, Hawaii and Iowa. While that may seem like a good figure to have, that number is largely based on the fact that both the top 1 percent of earners in the state and the bottom 99 percent of earners in the state are both the poorest in their respective category. The paper, “The new gilded age: Income inequality in the U.S. by state, metropolitan area, and county,” written by Estelle Sommeiller, a 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 Pennsylvania, found that the wealth gap, a measure between the top one percent of earners and the bottom 99 percent of earners, has grown in every state since the 1970s. (whole story)
The Register-Herald July 20, 2018
