In 2017 we know this was so much wishful thinking. Men remain firmly entrenched in power. Those who peddled tales of women’s imminent takeover of the professional world simply ignored or glossed over inconvenient facts. In the United States, female workforce participation peaked around the millennium and then fell. As for the pay gap, it remains alive and well. A survey released earlier this year by the Economic Policy Institute found that women earned, on average, 22 percent less than men per hour when controlled for race, experience, and education. Men earned more than women whether they worked as kindergarten teachers or as metal fabricators. As for those collaborative skills, they weren’t so in demand when their possessors were no longer in the first blush of youth; a 2015 survey published by the National Bureau of Economic Statistics discovered “robust evidence of age discrimination in hiring against older women.”
The Nation
December 5, 2017
But there’s another possible reason that red-state participation is lagging. “[P]art of it is a story of austerity,” said Josh Bivens, research director of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. While noting that the advantage blue states showed in the data appeared modest, Bivens said that states adopting cost-cutting measures could have put a damper on economic participation. “Growth in state and local spending has been historically slow since the Great Recession, and this drag from state and local governments is probably the single largest reason why the economy overall took so long to recover,” he said in an email. “I know that this state austerity has been most extreme in red states ([Gov. Sam] Brownback’s [Kansas] being the real exemplar here), and, I would absolutely expect states that did deeper cutting to have their recoveries lag overall averages.”
CBS Moneywatch
December 4, 2017
Most companies aren’t that rich, though. Eighty-six percent of households with pass-through income already pay a top marginal income tax rate of 25 percent or less, according to the liberal Economic Policy Institute. (House Republicans eventually amended their plan with a complex scheme for a lower effective rate for companies with lower incomes.)
The Huffington Post
December 4, 2017
“The GOP’s use of the term ‘small business’ conjures up images of neighborhood stores run by hardworking Americans carving out a modest living,” said Hunter Blair, an analyst from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute in a statement. “None of these households would benefit from the Republican plan.” The wealthiest 1 percent of households already claim 69 percent of pass-through income, the EPI said.
CBS Moneywatch
November 30, 2017
“If you’re not being paid, you’re not considered as an employee, then you’re unfortunately sacrificing your right to not be discriminated against in a gross and disgusting way,” Celine McNicholas, labor counsel at the Economic Policy Institute, tells Bustle. “Recent developments and news coverage have shown how susceptible young women are to this kind of treatment. Unpaid internships compound these problems. Your first experience is one where you don’t have a voice.” (Celine quoted throughout)
Bustle
November 29, 2017
The Washington Post
November 28, 2017
As I wrote last year, in a report on the economic costs of conflicted investment advice, President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers concluded that “conflicted advice costs Americans about $17 billion in foregone retirement earnings each year.” Over the summer, the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, estimated that an 18-month delay in the full implementation of the rule would cost retirement savings $10.9 billion over the next 30 years. The EPI has also previously estimated that earlier delays under the Trump administration will cost savers $7.6 billion over the next 30 years.
Pacific Standard
November 28, 2017
“Perhaps the most intuitive reason we know these cuts will fail to spark wage growth is that corporate profit rates have been historically high since 2007, while business investment has been historically low,” Josh Bivens, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, wrote this week.
The New York Times
November 27, 2017
According to Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, “The reason to oppose the latest round of Republican tax cuts is that they’re simply unfair and stupid and solve no economic problem facing typical American families. That should be more than enough.”
Common Dreams
November 27, 2017
But Heidi Shierholz, who was the chief economist at Obama’s Labor Department and who now directs a project on worker rights and wages at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, said that there were no credible studies showing that regulations cost American jobs. Some industries, such as the fossil fuel industry, may suffer disruption and losses, she said, but others — such as renewable energy — step in. She accused Trump of campaigning as a populist but governing as a big-business president when it comes to regulations to protect people. (Heidi quoted throughout)
St. Louis Post Dispatch
November 27, 2017