But many believe the loophole had the opposite effect, driving companies instead to pay more in stock options and certain performance-based bonuses, which actually supercharged the growth in CEO pay. In 1989, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, the median value of annual CEO compensation was $2.7 million. By 1995 it was $6.6 million, and it reached $13 million in 2016.
The Washington Post
November 27, 2017
Cheap labor has attracted American companies to Mexico for decades. The Economic Policy Institute’s Robert Scott estimates about 800,000 U.S. jobs were lost to Mexico between 1997 and 2013. NAFTA became law in 1994.
CNN Money
November 27, 2017
Unemployment for black Americans at 7.5 percent is almost twice the rate it is for whites, and after the Great Recession of 2008 hit a high of 16.8 percent. The annual unemployment rate for blacks with at least a college degree was 3.7 percent in June, compared to 2.3 percent for whites with at least a college degree, according to data from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The Boston Globe
November 27, 2017
At the same time that families have been asked to shoulder more of the responsibility of the cost of college, they’ve also been struggling to stretch their limited dollars. The wages of middle-class workers have grown just 6% since 1979 and low-wage workers’ wages actually dropped 5% during that period, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Market Watch
November 22, 2017
A 2015 study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimated that wages in right-to-work states are 12.7 percent lower than in states without those laws. Another study, released last April, concluded that the law resulted in workers in Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin losing 2.6 percent of their earnings along with a 2.1 percent decline in the unionization rate.
City & State
November 22, 2017
Today is the last day for people around the world to apply to what’s known as the diversity lottery program. That’s the program that gives U.S. visas to people from countries with low rates of immigration. The recent round of applications is for fiscal year of 2019. The program made recent headlines after a recipient was accused of carrying out a deadly terrorist attack in Manhattan, which prompted calls from President Donald Trump to do away with the program. What would stopping the program do to the U.S. economy? (Daniel Costa is in the full clip)
Marketplace
November 22, 2017
But Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta plans to revise and lower the salary level substantially – with the result that workers struggling on as little as $31,000 a year could be forced to work long hours with no extra pay, and leaving 9.1 million fewer workers protected according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Huffington Post
November 21, 2017
“That scarring, of not being able to get that experience after graduation, is very harmful,” says Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. By contrast, many younger Millennials have pursued their first jobs in a healthy labor market the past few years. For employers, a 24-year-old just starting out may be a more attractive and cheaper hire than a 32-year-old with a spotty resume, McLaughlin says. As a result, some members of the older group may continue to struggle with underemployment and lower wages and move out on their own at a slower-than-normal pace, Gould says. (Elise quoted throughout)
USA Today
November 21, 2017
Despite the cost, a college degree has its benefits: Analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows US college graduates in 2015 earned 56% more than high-school graduates, the biggest gap between the two groups since 1973. But, in the US at least, the return on higher education is high in part because of stagnant and falling wages for low-skilled earners. Millennials may be rushing to get college degrees in part because the alternatives are getting worse.
Quartz
November 20, 2017
The Economic Policy Institute has compiled a national look at state laws that prevent local governments from mandating better working conditions in cities and counties than state law provides. (whole story/map included)
Arkansas Times
November 20, 2017