Media clips
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Yet in some states, teachers are earning close to poverty wages, as the West Virginia strike and the threatened Oklahoma strike have demonstrated. Indeed, those two states offer compensation roughly a third lower than the national average for all public teachers, numbers that do not look much better adjusting for the cost of living. Moreover, there is data demonstrating that the teacher pay gap—meaning what public-school teachers earn compared with comparably qualified individuals in the private sector—is large and growing. The left-of-center Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has found that teachers’ average weekly wages actually fell $30 per week between 1996 and 2015 after adjusting for inflation, whereas they increased measurably among all college graduates. EPI also has estimated that public-school teachers were earning about 2 percent less than comparably qualified private-sector workers in 1994, a disparity measure that grew to 17 percent by 2015. “Teachers actually gained ground in the depths of the recession, as their pay didn’t fall, whereas pay for other workers did,” Larry Mishel, an economist at EPI, told me. “But when there was a recovery, they didn’t get much recovery.” Indeed, as state and local finances rebounded, many red and purple states cut their income taxes, with property taxes remaining depressed due to the subprime-mortgage crisis. The result: sharp declines in public-school funding per student, reduced salary increases through the recovery, and widespread teacher shortages. Teacher enrollments dropped from 691,000 in 2009 to just 451,000 a year in 2004 as attrition—meaning the share of educators dropping out of the profession—hit 8 percent a year. Nationwide, the number of teachers and other school workers has fallen by 135,000 since 2008, a recent analysis of government data by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-of-center think tank, found. Yet as that number declined, the number of students rose by 1.4 million.
The Atlantic March 14, 2018 -
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a single adult in Denver needs to earn more than $41,000 a year, or nearly double the current minimum wage, just to meet basic needs such as housing. A single parent with one child has to earn $72,000 dollars to get by in Pueblo, and $59,000 in Grand Junction.
Public News Service March 14, 2018 -
One major cities in Upstate New York, Buffalo ranks the lowest in cost of living, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. According to WKBW A family of four, with two adults and two children, could maintain a “modest yet adequate” standard of living in Buffalo for $7,339 per month or $88,071 per year. For comparison, the closest city to those numbers upstate is Rochester where the same standard of living could be maintained for $7,775 per month or $93,296 per year. Check out this family budget calculator which will show you what it estimates different sized families need to make in order to have a modest standard of living in locations across the country. (whole story)
WBLK March 14, 2018 -
If you’re a family of four in Solano County, you need about $7,500 per month, or nearly $90,000 annually, to live halfway decently, a new report shows. That same family in Napa County needs about $103,000 annually or nearly $9,000 per month to maintain that same modest lifestyle, it shows. The Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator measures the income a family needs to attain a “modest yet adequate” standard of living, Institute officials said. The budgets estimate community-specific costs for 10 family types (one or two adults with zero to four children) in all counties and metro areas in the United States. It offers a more accurate measure of economic security in the U.S. than the federal poverty line and the Supplemental Poverty Measure, they said. (whole story)
Vallejo Times-Herald March 14, 2018 -
Of major cities in Upstate New York, Buffalo ranks the lowest in cost of living, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. A family of four, with two adults and two children, could maintain a “modest yet adequate” standard of living in Buffalo for $7,339 per month or $88,071 per year. For comparison, the closest city to those numbers upstate is Rochester where the same standard of living could be maintained for $7,775 per month or $93,296 per year. A family of four, with two adults and two children, could maintain a “modest yet adequate” standard of living in Buffalo for $7,339 per month or $88,071 per year. For comparison, the closest city to those numbers upstate is Rochester where the same standard of living could be maintained for $7,775 per month or $93,296 per year. (whole story)
WKBW March 14, 2018 -
It’s not just you: Miami really is one of the least affordable places to live in the country. But it’s not only because of the high cost of housing, healthcare, transportation and taxes. A family of four spends almost $85,000 per year to live in Miami-Dade County, according to the updated Family Budget Calculator released by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive Washington-based think tank. Along with the above-mentioned items, the calculator estimates costs for food, child care and “other necessities.” That makes Miami the 41st most expensive place to live among America’s largest 100 metros when measured in pure cost. The EPI study mirrors previous surveys that have ranked Miami as high on costs, low on wages, and adds further context to how difficult it is to make ends meet here. (whole story)
The Miami Herald March 14, 2018 -
If you think it’s expensive to live in Los Angeles County, you’d be right. The Economic Policy Institute’s latest Family Budget Calculator shows that a family of two adults and two children in L.A. County need to earn $7,691 a month, or $92,295 a year, to meet all of its living expenses. That outstrips L.A. County’s median family income, which is just $66,203 per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The Family Budget Calculator estimates that family of four will pay $1,663 a month for housing, $830 for food, $1,223 for child care, $1,159 for transportation, $795 for health care, $1,006 for other necessities and $1,016 for taxes. A household with just two adults can get by for much less, as they need to earn $4,697 a month, or $56,361 a year. Zane Mokhiber, a research analyst with the EPI, notes that the annual totals are sometimes off by a few dollars because the various monthly expenses were rounded up or down. (whole story)
Los Angeles Daily News March 14, 2018 -
That’s according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The organization’s Family Budget Calculator shows what’s required for families to maintain a modest standard of living in different areas of the U.S. The annual cost of living in the Syracuse and Albany metro areas topped Buffalo at $96,173 and $101,855, respectively. New York City, including Long Island, ranked highest in the state at $124,129. Why is it so much cheaper to live in Erie and Niagara counties? EPI research assistant Zane Mokhiber pointed to Buffalo’s housing prices,which tend to be lower than other cities across the state. (whole story)
Buffalo Business First March 14, 2018 -
Another common industry argument is that raising the tipped minimum wage is ultimately bad for workers. Customers will tip less, that thinking goes, if they know restaurants must pay waiters and bartenders at least the regular minimum wage. There’s no evidence to back up that claim. Waiters and other tipped workers in California and the six other states without a subminimum tipped wage — Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Montana and Minnesota — earn more money and are less likely to live in poverty, according to government data analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute, a research organization. (An eighth state, Hawaii, has effectively eliminated the subminimum wage by letting businesses pay tipped workers 75 cents an hour less than the state’s minimum wage of $10.10, but only if those workers earn at least $7 an hour in tips.)
The New York Times March 13, 2018 -
Analyst Janelle Jones at the Economic Policy Institute called the recent decline in African-American unemployment “real improvement, it’s a positive trend for black workers.” But she pointed out that other measures of job market success for African-Americans are not as remarkable. “Discouraged workers, underemployed — those are definitely still high for black workers.” The Labor Department defines “discouraged workers” as those who want a job but have given up looking and the “underemployed” as people working part time because they can’t find full-time work. In the past decade, the racial gap in unemployment should have narrowed more, given rising levels of education and job skills among African-Americans, Jones said. (Janelle and EPI quoted throughout)
Marketplace March 13, 2018