Media clips
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Wage stagnation and economic inequality: These two conditions explain a large part of the working-but-barely-making-it phenomenon. Let’s start with those stagnant wages. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), for about three decades after World War II, hourly wage increases for workers in non-supervisory roles kept pace with productivity increases: at 91.3 and 96.7 percent, respectively. Then things changed dramatically. Between 1973 and 2013, productivity increased by 74.4 percent and wages by only 9.2 percent. In other words, with wages adjusted for inflation, the average American worker made no more in 2013 than in 1973. As for economic inequality, the EPI reports that from 1980 to 2013 the income of the top 1 percent of wage earners increased by 138 percent compared with 15 percent for the bottom 90 percent. For those at the lowest end of the wage scale, it was even worse. In those years, their hourly pay actually dropped by 5 percent.
The Nation March 31, 2017 -
Valerie Wilson and Janelle Jones, economists at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, took a look at labor data for black and white workers between the years 1979 and 2015. They found that both black and white workers, between 18 and 64 years old, have increased their number of paid, annual hours of work in the past 36 years. According to the analysis by Wilson and Jones, the average black worker in 2015 put in 1,805 hours, or 12.4 percent more hours than they did in 1979. By contrast, the average white worker put in 1,888 hours, for an increase of around 11 percent. While those trajectories may seem similar, the picture looks a lot different when it comes to the lowest-wage workers in each racial group. When looking at the lowest earners, black workers have seen much more significant increases.
The Atlantic March 30, 2017 -
According to a report released Wednesday, researchers at the Economic Policy Institute found that, not only do lower-income Americans have trouble affording child care costs, they also have greater difficulty accessing child care options that are high-quality. That’s not entirely surprising — the more limited your financial resources, the more likely you will be to send your children to the daycare you can afford, not necessarily the one you think would be most developmentally-enriching. But aside from being a heartbreaking reality for far too many parents, the problem is that research has proven that access to quality early care and education before the age of 5 has a measurable effect on long-term achievement. And when children miss out on those opportunities because of financial reasons, they are more likely to have poorer educational outcomes as they get older.
Romper March 30, 2017 -
EPI: CHILD CARE IS UNAFFORDABLE: Many Americans are unable to afford high quality child care, according to a new paper from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The average cost of full-time child care is between $4,000 and $22,600 a year, the paper said. Low-income families have a particularly tough time affording care for their children. According to the paper, “the shares of annual minimum-wage earnings required to afford center-based infant care range from 31.8 percent in South Dakota to 103.6 percent in Washington, D.C.” The authors recommend that policies to reform the child care system “allow all parents the option to stay home with their infants, newly adopted children or new foster children.” They also recommend lowering the cost for low- and middle-income families and investing in the workforce to improve quality. More here.
Politico March 30, 2017 -
As previously reported on Broadly, the plan would benefit the rich and do virtually nothing for working class parents, who suffer the most under America’s current child-care crisis. In a 2015 report from the Economic Policy Institute, the authors found that “the high cost of child care means that a full-time, full-year minimum-wage worker with one child falls far below the family budget threshold in all 618 family budget areas—even after adjusting for higher state and city minimum wages.”
Broadly March 29, 2017 -
“When President Trump has a chance to stand with workers, he chooses not to,” Heidi Shierholz, a labor policy expert at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said in a statement. “By blocking this rule, the president and congressional Republicans will ensure that taxpayers will continue to support contractors with a history of wage theft and health and safety violations.”
The Huffington Post March 28, 2017 -
“[The repeal] invites bad behavior on behalf of federal contractors and it forces high-road employers into the race to the bottom,” says Celine McNicholas, labor policy counsel for the Economic Policy Institute. She believes that using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to repeal the rule could set a dangerous and far-reaching precedent because it blocks future administrations from implementing “substantially similar” regulations. “My concern is what does this say to federal contractors? Does it mean you get a free pass on federal labor laws? We don’t know what the definition of ‘substantially similar’ means in the CRA context.” As of now, McNicholas says the message from Trump to federal contractors appears to be: Violate federal labor law freely and we’ll still contract with you.
The American Prospect March 28, 2017 -
College graduates have generally seen improving economic prospects, at least in contrast to less educated Americans. The wage gap between high school and college grads is at its widest point since researchers began tracking that metric 40 years ago. Grads now earn 56 percent more than high school graduates, compared with 51 percent in 1999, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CBS Moneywatch March 28, 2017 -
We’ll have a conversation about the state of retirement in the US. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the share of families with retirement savings declined after the 2008 Great Recession. Half of all families in the US have less than $5,000 in retirement accounts. Sixty percent of black families and 75 percent of Hispanic families don’t have any retirement savings. How are you preparing for retirement? Join us live at 10am, on the next Your Call, with Rose Aguilar, you.
Guests: Jeff Faux, Distinguished Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.
Teresa Ghilarducci, labor economist and author of How to Retire with Enough Money: And How to Know What Enough Is
KALW March 28, 2017 -
It is no secret there are differences between union and nonunion construction workers. Unfortunately, the recent study produced by the Economic Policy Institute is bought and paid for by the Building Trades of New York City and it shows (“Union construction workers diversify, still outearn nonunion counterparts,” CrainsNewYork.com). The study misses the mark entirely in its analysis of wage differences between union and nonunion (merit shop) sectors, because it’s based on bad data. EPI reached its conclusions by treating a specialized craft worker working on a city high-rise the same as someone working on a single-family home. If you do not think that is an issue, consider this: a merit-shop elevator installer in high-rise residential construction is paid vastly more than the nonunion home stair-lift installer, yet they are in the same statistical category. When you remove home stair-lift installation (which is work unions don’t perform), one will find little difference in union and merit shop elevator worker earnings. (EPI cited throughout)
Crain's New York March 28, 2017