A former coalminer who becomes a successful developer deserves our respect and admiration. But the data suggests that relatively few will be able to follow their example. Our educational system has long been producing more programmers than the labor market can absorb. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that the supply of American college graduates with computer science degrees is 50% greater than the number hired into the tech industry each year. For all the talk of a tech worker shortage, many qualified graduates simply can’t find jobs.
The Guardian
September 22, 2017
Indeed, last week’s positive census report, which indicated rising wages, may have actually been a bit misleading, said Josh Bivens, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “In my mind the strong earnings numbers we got from the Census Bureau, they fuzz up the picture,” Bivens said. “The inflation the Fed wants to avoid is the inflation is that happens when the economy is overheating, when workers really have the leverage and are demanding higher wages. We haven’t seen that dynamic in decades.” Falling or slowly rising prices in the short term is good for consumers, Bivens said, because if you’re spending less on gas or food, then that’s more money in your pocket. But in the longer term, prices rise when workers are earning the higher wages to support them, and that’s just not happening yet.
Mic
September 21, 2017
Sherman points to research which shows workers in right-to-work states actually receive less pay. Studies have actually been fairly mixed when it comes to what impact right-to-work actually has on workers. The Economic Policy Institute found the policy results in decreased wages and benefits. The Heritage Foundation, however, found wages and benefits in right-to-work states aren’t actually less when you adjust for the cost of living.
Inside Sources
September 21, 2017
Education is supposed to be the nation’s great socioeconomic leveler. That belief, however, is not borne out in the data. Pay gaps between white and black workers have grown since 1979, even after controlling for education, experience and location, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute. In fact, racial pay gaps have expanded the most for college graduates, which makes it seem clear that discrimination is a leading cause.
The New York Times
September 20, 2017
More broadly, little progress in closing racial pay gaps has been made since 2000, according to Economic Policy Institute. Black-white wage gaps are wider today than they were in 1979, an EPI study showed last year.
CBS News
September 20, 2017
The hike would raise wages for more than 1 million workers in Massachusetts, about a third of the state’s workforce, the majority of whom are adults working full time, according to the Economic Policy Institute. At the current rate of $11 an hour, a full-time minimum wage worker makes less than $23,000 a year. The bills are backed by more than 90 lawmakers, but if the legislature does not act, the wage increase would likely be put before voters next year, where it is widely expected to pass. Every time a minimum wage increase is on the ballot it passes, said David Cooper, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, who testified in favor of the boost to $15.
Boston Globe
September 20, 2017
While the unemployment rate is down and job growth has been steady, nominal wage growth is at 2.5 percent year over year, preventing a “full recovery” from the Great Recession, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit Washington, D.C., think tank. “As the unemployment rate comes down, you would expect to see stronger wage growth,” said Elise Gould, senior economist for the institute. What’s keeping wages down, Gould said, is “slack” in the labor market: people not actively looking for jobs but still interested in finding work. “Because of that, employers know that they don’t have to offer higher wages to attract or retain the workers they want,” Gould said.
The Chicago Tribune
September 20, 2017
To be sure, these numbers need context. Wages and incomes fell so far during the Great Recession that median household income, as measured by the Census Bureau, is today still barely above the level it reached in 1999. Furthermore, in 2013 the Census Bureau changed its formula, introducing new methodology that has tended to raise reported incomes. When the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, reworked the Bureau’s numbers to make the methodology consistent over time, it found that median household income was still slightly below its 2007 level. Even allowing for these qualifications, though, there is no doubt that incomes have jumped quite a bit since the end of 2014—coinciding with a drop in the jobless rate, from 5.6 per cent to 4.4 per cent. “It is quite impressive, the income growth of the last two years,” Larry Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, told me on Monday. “It points to the need to operate at very low levels of unemployment.” (Larry quoted throughout)
The New Yorker
September 19, 2017
In Alabama, parents can expect to pay an average of $470 per month for infant care, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. The same arrangement costs $975 in New York, $743 in Indiana and $1,886 in Washington, D.C.
The Washington Post
September 19, 2017
“If confirmed, Stanton will be tasked with holding employers accountable when they steal workers’ wages,” writes Celine McNicholas, labor counsel for the Economic Policy Institute. “Her history of siding against workers certainly raises the question of how vigorously she will approach this task.”
The American Prospect
September 19, 2017