Media clips
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“Pay inequity directly touches the lives of black women in at least three distinct ways,” a blog post by the Economic Policy Institute explains. “Since few black women are among the top five percent of earners in this country, they have experienced the relatively slow wage growth that characterizes growing class inequality along with the vast majority of other Americans. But in addition to this class inequality, they also experience lower pay due to gender and race bias.” Black women not only get paid less than white women but also work longer hours, it adds.
Glamour August 1, 2017 -
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive research nonprofit, calculated the pay difference in a study Friday. The research found black women are paid only 67 cents on average for every dollar a non-Hispanic white man makes. Education, years of experience, and location were taken into account to factor for influences aside from discrimination. “Folks generally understand or know about gender pay equality,” EPI researcher Valerie Wilson told InsideSources. “There are significant differences in gender pay gap when we account for race. So today signifies that day that African American women actually catch up with what white men earned in the previous year.” Wilson currently serves as the director of EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE). She was among the team of researchers that helped calculate the pay difference for black women. She hopes the day will draw attention to the issue so that more people are aware and can start talking solutions. (whole story)
Inside Sources August 1, 2017 -
The CEOs of the top 350 U.S. firms made an average of $15.6 million in 2016. That’s according to a new report, released recently by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute that looks at total CEO compensation: salary, stock grants, bonuses and long-term incentive payouts. Among the findings: The average CEO makes 271 times the amount that a typical worker makes — the “average” pay of a worker in the CEO’s industry. Notably, that’s down from 2015, when CEO-to-worker compensation was 286 to 1. But it’s a far cry from the 20-to-1 ratio of 1965 and suggests just how unequal corporate pay in America has come. So why are CEOs making so much? Do they deserve it? And why might CEO pay have been down last year? (whole story)
PBS News Hour August 1, 2017 -
You may remember hearing about Equal Pay Day back in April, but that’s not the whole picture. There are a lot of wage-gap statistics you need to know on Black Women’s Equal Pay Day — which highlights the amount of time African American women need to work to earn the same wages as their white male counterparts — include the troubling fact that black women workers are paid only 67 cents on the dollar relative to white non-Hispanic men, even after controlling for education, years of experience, and location, according to the Economic Policy Institute. And, they must work four months longer (until Jul. 31) than white women to earn the same wage. This is not equality. “Pay inequity directly touches the lives of black women in at least three distinct ways,” Valerie Wilson, Janelle Jones, Kayla Blado, and Elise Gould reported on the EPI blog. “Since few black women are among the top five percent of earners in this country, they have experienced the relatively slow wage growth that characterizes growing class inequality along with the vast majority of other Americans. But in addition to this class inequality, they also experience lower pay due to gender and race bias.” (whole story)
Bustle July 31, 2017 -
You’ve likely heard of Equal Pay Day, but you might not know that women of color have to work even longer than white women for the same pay — and that’s exactly what Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is setting out to tell the world. In order to achieve equal pay for black women in every state, if the current trends continue, it will take until 2124 to close the wage gap for black women, according to City Lab. While all women earn less than white men, black women earn an average of only 67 cents for every dollar a white man earns, which means that in some states black women make far less than that. Additionally, it means that any woman born today will not see equal pay in her lifetime. Jul. 31 is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, the day in the year that black women have to work until to receive the same pay as a white man — four months longer than white women have to work for the same pay. To put that into perspective, a tweet from Byte Back reads, “The average American man could go on vacation from January until July and still earn the same as the average black woman who works all year.”
Bustle July 31, 2017 -
Among the measures of income inequality for both minorities and women are the number of cents each group is paid compared to white males, who are traditionally the highest paid people in America for jobs at every level. The last data show, once again, how wide the gulfs are. According to information from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), black women have to work seven months into 2017 to be paid the same as white men in 2016. (whole story)
Wall St. 24/7 July 31, 2017 -
The black unemployment rate is near a historic low, according to a recent report from a Washington, D.C. think tank. The analysis, by two economists at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, also found that the nation’s black unemployment rate fell faster than the overall jobless rate over the past year. Despite these improvements, the jobless rate for black workers still is roughly twice that of white workers – a decades-old pattern that endures. “It speaks a lot to the persistence of discrimination in labor markets,” said Valerie Rawlston Wilson, director of EPI’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy and a co-author of the analysis. “The fact is that race continues to play an outsized role in terms of labor market opportunities for people of different races and ethnicities.” (whole story)
The Plain Dealer July 31, 2017 -
The AFL-CIO created an entire department dedicated to encouraging investors to vote against large CEO compensation packages. Think tanks including the Economic Policy Institute have released data showing CEOs make about 300 times more than the average worker. Critics argue that bloated CEO compensation packages lead to wage stagnation for the average worker, which leads to low morale and reduced productivity. (EPI cited and Larry quoted)
Bloomberg July 28, 2017 -
“This request is clearly in the interest of the Trump administration in weakening, if not killing [the Obama] rule,” Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, said by phone. “They are putting out the request for information in the hopes of obtaining good information to have the legal foundation to back a weaker threshold for the rule.” The EPI, which has advocated for labor unions in the past, issued a statement opposing the proposed overtime changes:
Mic July 28, 2017 -
A number of studies have suggested we’re living in a period where technology could be very destructive for American jobs. While automation will create 15 million new jobs by 2025, it’ll wipe out 25 million in the process, according to the research firm Forrester. In fact, our series “Robot-Proof Jobs” explored the possibility of a robot takeover, and which jobs would and wouldn’t survive in the event of one. But not everyone agrees with this argument. Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, says that automation is a distraction from other issues, like eroding labor standards and declining unionization.
Marketplace July 28, 2017