Factor No. 2: Anemic teacher pay
· The temptation to go back for a master’s is even stronger because public school teacher pay has been suffering in general. According to a 2016 report by the Economic Policy Institute, teachers earn 17 percent less than similarly educated workers in other fields. In 1994, the gap was just 1.8 percent.
NPR
July 16, 2017
Robert E. Scott, a senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research for the Economic Policy Institute, in a blog post Tuesday underscored the dilemma in economic sanctions.
One segment of the economy – manufacturers that use cheaper foreign steel – could be hamstrung with rising materials costs, he said.
The Detroit Metro Times
July 16, 2017
And economist Elise Gould from the Economic Policy Institute has estimated that the cost for lead paint hazard control just for homes considered to be a significant risk — because the homes had a combination of both lead paint hazards and low income families with children under the age of 6 years — is an estimated $1.2 to $11.0 billion. Gould also found that the benefits of tackling lead contamination on a widespread scale are substantial given the costs of medical treatment, lost earnings, tax revenue, special education, lead-linked attention deficit hyperactivity disorder cases, and criminal activity.
Think Progress
July 15, 2017
But premium subsidies would be less generous under the Senate plan, according to Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. And cost-sharing subsidies would disappear, so workers would pay more out of pocket. … “Pre-ACA, to get really good insurance, you needed a job, period,” Bivens said. After it passed, “you could decide to work non-traditional jobs and have decent insurance you could rely on.”
Mashable
July 15, 2017
U.S. employers added a robust 222,000 jobs in June, the most in four months, a reassuring sign that businesses may be confident enough to keep hiring despite a slow-growing economy.
But despite the promising job growth, wage growth still disappoints, according to the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. EPI noted in a release that the U.S. needs to add at least 232,000 jobs per month over the next year to lower the unemployment rate to 4 percent and bring another million workers back in from the sidelines. (EPI cited throughout and Dan C. quoted)
The Reading Eagle
July 15, 2017
Those admitted to the U.S. on the basis of merit have accounted for less than 10 percent of all legal immigrants over the past 15 years, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute and the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Yearbook, and Trump pledged as a presidential candidate to shift the U.S. to a merit-based immigration system.
Politico
July 13, 2017
And though many in the education space would argue that a two to four year degree is absolutely necessary for students to be able to get a job, a 2016 report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the unemployment rate for college graduates still hovers around 5.6% and underemployment at 12.6%, with a 9.4% unemployment rate for black college graduates. And overall, wages for both high school and college are still fairly progressing poorly, having had little to no growth since 2000.
Education Dive
July 13, 2017
Can’t find good workers? Pay up!
CNN Money/Patrick Gillespie
Jobs may be going unfilled, says Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left learning research group. But, he asks, “at what wage? That’s the question. Will employers start to make job conditions better to attract more workers? If they’re not doing that, then they’re not facing much of a shortage.”
CNN Money
July 12, 2017
REPORT: TRADE DEALS HURT MAJORITY OF U.S. WORKERS: International trade agreements that have focused on corporate interests over workers’ benefits — without doing enough to offset costs or address currency misalignments — have become a “deep economic wound” for the working class and a “political disaster for the country,” according to a new report out today from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “The effects of globalization and our failed policy response to it are not just a problem for white manufacturing workers in the Rust Belt, but in fact affect the majority of workers and likely fall disproportionately on the wages of nonwhite workers,” EPI’s Josh Bivens, the director of research, writes in the report. The administration must take steps to address differences in currency and compensate negatively affected workers and should stop pursuing new omnibus trade deals that “provide increased protection for corporate profits while undercutting American wages,” the report says.
Politico
July 12, 2017
“Since at least 2013, Uber’s individual contracts with its drivers have contained an arbitration clause that prohibits the drivers from participating in a class or collective action,” writes Katherine V.W. Stone in a report for the Economic Policy Institute. “This composite mandatory arbitration/class action waiver clause has been the Sword of Damocles hanging over the Uber class action litigation.” … Plus, in the end, arbitration hearings rarely swing workers’ way. According to the Economic Policy Institute, employees win arbitration hearings about one-fifth of the time; workers are 1.7 times more likely to win hearings in federal court and 2.6 times more likely to win hearings in state court.
CityLab
July 12, 2017