Media clips
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From an economic point of view, studies show there is little contest: The pay gap between people with four-year college degrees and everyone else is bigger than ever.That gap has been growing since the 1980s, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, not so much because wages for college graduates have risen, but because the average wage for everyone else has fallen.
The New York Times November 1, 2016 -
“The fact is we have weakened unions and workers have less leverage,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a non-profit group that analyses the economic impact of policy policies on lower-income Americans, told Salon. “Labor’s share of private-sector income looks like it’s coming back a little bit, but it’s still far below where it could be at this point in the recovery.” Gould points mainly to the opportunities squandered by Congress to implement more stimulus spending measures, such as investing on public school teachers (there are fewer now than before the Great Recession) and much-needed public-works projects. The opportunities were squandered even as record-low interest rates would have made these jobs project cheaper.
Salon November 1, 2016 -
Casey referenced a 2015 study published by the Economic Policy Institute that said wages consistently grew with the rise in productivity starting from the end of World War II until 1973. Since then, wages stagnated as productivity continued to increase, creating a lot of frustration for American workers. “If you’re at the end of 40 years with 11 percent wage growth, you’re going to have a lot of anxiety because people’s economic security is really at stake,” said Casey. “Then, they see the dysfunction in Washington, a government shutdown, arguments over the debt ceiling and whether or not we should pay the bills. When you combine those, you can see where people have a lot of anxiety.”
The Intelligencer November 1, 2016 -
What is the correct figure for how much women are paid relative to men? Is it 80 cents to the dollar? Or is it 83 cents? The answer, it turns out, is both: There are alternative methods for measuring the gender wage gap, and a Wednesday panel discussion at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., focused on the myriad ways the gap shortchanges female workers. The event centered on a new EPI report entitled “What is the gender pay gap and is it real?” “Different gender wage gaps are answers to different questions,” said EPI senior economist Elise Gould, a co-author of the report, during the discussion. “It doesn’t mean [the wage gap] is not real.” While 80 cents to the dollar reflects the median discrepancy for women working full-time, Gould said that EPI uses the 83 percent figure because it looks at per-hour wages and includes part-time workers.
The American Prospect October 28, 2016 -
Some argue that the U.S. is basically at “full employment” now, which economists consider the lowest rate of joblessness that doesn’t cause price inflation ― although they don’t agree what the rate should be. So what accounts for the persistence of very-long-term unemployment when the official jobless rate has been hanging around a comparatively healthy 5 percent for a whole year? Maybe it’s a clue that full employment is more elusive than it seems. “We’re still probably a year away” from full employment, said Elise Gould, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute. She said more months of steady job growth will eventually lead to jobs for those who’ve been looking the longest, a group that can face discrimination in hiring. “As jobs continue to increase and the labor market tightens, those workers are going to be pulled in along with everyone else,” Gould said.
The Huffington Post October 28, 2016 -
For every dollar men make, women make 83 cents, and progress toward closing it has largely stalled in recent years. If there’s good news, it’s that the gap has closed considerably since 1979, when women made 62 cents for every dollar earned by a man, according to a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute. Unfortunately, one reason the spread has narrowed is not because women are earning more, although they are, but because men are making less. According to the EPI’s analysis of US government wage data, men’s inflation adjusted hourly wages have fallen 6.7% since 1979, even as women’s have increased 24%.
Quartz October 28, 2016 -
Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute said that stripping out the volatile inventory components of GDP suggests the economy is growing at a more modest pace than the third-quarter data indicates. Still, economists believe the rebound raises the odds that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates later this year.
October 28, 2016 -
The US does outperform most of the world in one area: the parity of educational attainment between men and women. In that category, it shares the #1 spot with a several other countries, including two of the most gender-equal in the world: Iceland and Finland. But that doesn’t translate to equality in the labor force, given that US women earn $0.83 for every dollar men earn. As the Economic Policy Institute points out, however, rising inequality overall has kept everyone’s wages down in the US. “Closing only the gap between men’s and women’s wages threatens to ensure parity in this stagnation, not parity in progress,” says Elise Gould, senior economist at EPI, a Washington think tank, in a press release. “To achieve true progress, the gender wage gap must be closed alongside the gap between economy-wide productivity and the wages of most workers.”
The Christian Science Monitor October 27, 2016 -
Well this area is not alone. The Economic Policy Institute says 3.2 million jobs left the US for China between 2001 and 2013. The lead author, Robert Scott, is working on follow up research, and he’s certain the numbers have only grown, with manufacturing and construction hardest hit. “Those are the two sectors that pay really well for those kinds of workers. The jobs that we have gained have been in services, such as retail trade, restaurants and home health care, where wages are much lower – on average about 30% lower in total compensation. So what’s happening is we’re trading in good jobs for bad,” Mr Scott said… Robert Scott argues that currency manipulation is the single biggest factor. He says China has kept its currency artificially low for years, which makes its exports cheaper overseas – acting as a massive subsidy for its own manufacturers.
BBC News October 27, 2016 -
When economist Elise Gould and a colleague published a report on the wage gap back in July—”‘Women’s work’ and the gender pay gap”—the obligatory trolls rose up from the comment section. “We got comments back—and I’m not saying they’re high-level comments—sort of denying that it actually exists,” Gould told me over the phone. It’s not just random misogynistic trolls who find objections with wage gap statistics, either. It’s common party line from conservatives and libertarians who just don’t think there needs to be any intervention in the way employers conduct their businesses—and from Republicans in Congress continue who to block the Paycheck Fairness Act. These critics commonly say that women are paid around 80 cents for every dollar men make not because of gender discrimination but because of choice: Women choose to work in lower paying fields, women choose not to ask for raises, and women choose to work shorter hours than men.
Broadly October 26, 2016