Media clips
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Are labor unions a universal good? Critics have long held the opposite, arguing that while unions line members’ pockets, they leave non-unionized workers with lower wages and fewer job prospects. But supporters counter that when unions strike bargains for their members, even nonunion workers benefit. New research unveiled Tuesday suggests the supporters have a point. The study — released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) — collected information on union strength as well as wages for non-unionized workers. The data ranges from 1979 to 2013, across four geographic regions and 18 industrial sectors.
The Week August 31, 2016 -
Teachers’ wages are declining compared to other workers with similar experience, education, and demographics, according to a report out earlier this month from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington-based think tank. Last year the gap in pay between teachers and other comparable workers was 17 percent, a marked increase from the 4.3 percent difference in wages between teachers and non-teachers in 1996. When including teachers’ generous benefits, though, the 2015 pay gap shrinks to 11 percent, according to the liberal-leaning EPI, which calls for higher pay.
The Christian Science Monitor August 31, 2016 -
Anemic gains in wages have plagued U.S. workers not just since the Great Recession ended seven years ago but for years before it as well. The underlying factors vary, but research just out suggests that a major culprit is lost in the noise over jobs going offshore, immigration and the minimum wage. The research points to the decline of organized labor, which is hitting American paychecks across the board. Some 73.1 million full-time nonunion private sector workers are losing $133 billion in wages a year due to weakened unions, according to a report released Tuesday by the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
CBS Moneywatch August 30, 2016 -
There’s this notion out there that unions are great for union members, and that’s pretty much it. But a new report from the Economic Policy Institute looks at how the decline in labor unions has affected non-union workers. Since the late 1970s, unionization has declined, particularly among men in the private sector who don’t have a college degree. Jake Rosenfeld, who teaches sociology at Washington University, co-authored this study and said strong unions mean higher wages for both union members and non-members.
NPR Marketplace August 30, 2016 -
The idea that union decline has led to greater income inequality is supported by two new papers from Washington-area think tanks, the left-leaning Employment Policy Institute and the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank founded by Dean Baker. The EPI paper by Jake Rosenfeld of Washington University, and Patrick Denice and Jennifer Laird, of the University of Washington, looks at how the decline of unions has impacted the earnings of workers who don’t belong to unions. The authors find that the presence of unions significantly affects the wages of non-union workers, especially those without a college degree. Non-union men without a high school diploma would be experiencing weekly wages that were 9 percent higher if union density had remained at 1979 levels, the authors estimate. That translates to $3,172 a year. Non-union men without a bachelor’s degree would have seen weekly wages that were 8 percent higher with union density at 1979 levels; weekly wages for all private-sector men would have been 5 percent high with that union density.
The Atlantic August 30, 2016 -
The dramatic nationwide drop in private-sector union membership has lowered pay for non-union workers over the past four decades, a study released Tuesday argues. The paper, published by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank that receives some of its funding from unions, provides new evidence for a longstanding truism among organized labor’s proponents: that in industries where union density is high, even non-union firms pay their workers more to meet the standards set by unions
Huffington Post August 30, 2016 -
The steep decline in union membership in recent decades has had an outsize effect on the American workforce, tamping down wage increases for nonunion workers, a new study says. Average weekly earnings for nonunion private-sector male workers would have been 5%, or $52, higher in 2013 if the share of union workers had remained at 1979 levels, according to the study out Tuesday from the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute ahead of Labor Day. That’s tantamount to a loss of $2,704 annually for the average nonunion worker.
USA Today August 30, 2016 -
“I’m in a Union. You’re Welcome” — How having strong labor unions helps everyone who works earn more
A new study released today by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for people of low and middle income, has attempted to quantify how much today’s nonunion workers would have benefitted if union membership remained as at the levels of 1979. The main takeaway: The typical full-time private-sector worker — whether a union member or not — would be making thousands of dollars more a year now if unions had the power they once did to influence a state’s or region’s standard wages and benefits packages. “There’s a stereotype that unions only help union workers, but we found that the decline of union membership has had a vast effect on nonunion workers,” one of the study’s co-authors Jake Rosenfeld told Salon. “We got as close as possible to isolating union activity from the other two effects of wage erosion: globalization and technological innovation.”
Salon August 30, 2016 -
A new Economic Policy Institute white paper published Tuesday found that since 1979, the share of men who belong to unions in the private-sector workforce has fallen from 34 percent to 10 percent. According to the Washington-based think tank, if unions had the same presence in the private sector today that they did in 1979, men—both union members and nonunion members alike—would be making $2,704 more each year. The EPI researchers also found that union membership makes a tremendous difference for people who do not have college degrees. Real wages for nonunion men without a college degree are even lower today than they were in the 1970s. (As for women, the report noted that “the effects of union decline on the wages of nonunion women are not as substantial because women were not as unionized as men were in 1979.”)
The American Prospect August 30, 2016 -
Lawrence Mishel, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, expects the official household income number to be strong: “I will say that it will be between 1 and 2 percent growth. I lean more toward 2. You’ll probably see strong income growth and some reduction in poverty, but I don’t think you’ll find that household income will return to their prior levels in 1999.”
The New York Times August 30, 2016