Media clips
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“We have a myth – I call it ‘de facto segregation,’ ” says Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., and author of the report “The Making of Ferguson.” “As if all the patterns of racial segregation across the country just sort of happened by accident. And that’s a myth.” While personal choices may have contributed to segregation, with families choosing to live in places where their neighbors looked like them, Mr. Rothstein says that government policies have been the biggest driver for the incredible levels of separateness that are seen today. Early on, the federal government built separate public housing projects for African-Americans and whites in urban areas…The difficulty in reducing segregation is rooted in part in society’s reluctance to admit that it’s a self-made problem. “There are many things we can do [to reduce segregation], but we’re not going to do them so long as we have the myth that segregation developed without intent and that it happened by accident, and therefore that it can only un-happen by accident,” says Rothstein. “It’s going to require policy as conscious to desegregate as it was to segregate.”
Christian Science Monitor September 10, 2016 -
In some instances, it’s a too-small nest egg that leaves retirees looking to fill the income gap. An analysis from the National Institute on Retirement Security found that 65 percent of American households are at risk of falling short in retirement. The mean retirement savings for households aged 56 to 61 is less than $164,000, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute, far short of the $1 million or more that industry experts recommend.
U.S. News & World Report September 9, 2016 -
Valerie Wilson, an economist at think tank Economic Policy Institute told CNN the black unemployment rate “would be unacceptable if that were the national rate.” According to the Economic Policy Institute, “Wages of black workers are more responsive to aggregate labor market changes. Doubling the national unemployment rate is estimated to reduce real hourly wages by at least 8 percent for the median black worker, compared to 3 percent for the median white worker.” This means that while the decline in unemployment can overall be seen as positive, the wages of people of color were disproportionately impacted over the course of the recession and its recovery compared to whites. Furthermore, despite the aforementioned increase in the number of black-owned businesses, they still only make up 7 percent of all U.S firms.
Complex September 9, 2016 -
In the debates about what is fueling widening inequality and persistent wage stagnation among lower earners, the decline of unions usually takes a back seat to globalization and automation. But a new study from the Economic Policy Institute suggests that weakened union power and shrinking union density may play a bigger role than previously thought. That’s because its not just union members who benefit from collective bargaining. According to the report, “unions, especially in industries and regions where they are strong, help boost the wages of all workers by establishing pay and benefit standards that many nonunion firms adopt.” Highly unionized states have driven the push for an increased minimum wage, for example. Employers of nonunion workers might raise pay to prevent workers from organizing or leaving for higher paying union jobs.
Next City September 9, 2016 -
According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, Ohio suffered some of the highest jobs losses of any state as a result of NAFTA. A recent report by EPI also states that America lost 2 million jobs in 2015 due to trade deficits with nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Ohio, along with fellow Rust Belt states Michigan and Indiana, made the top 10 list of states most affected. President Barack Obama has made passing the TPP trade bill a key priority during his last months in office.
Moyers & Company September 9, 2016 -
Without access to child-care services on campus, student parents, a majority of whom are raising children by themselves, are forced to find alternative options that can be pricey. In 33 states and the District of Columbia, infant-care costs exceed the average cost of in-state college tuition at public four-year colleges, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Washington Post September 8, 2016 -
On Wednesday, Rosenfeld discussed the changing labor movement and a new study from the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which he contributed to. He also discussed what led to the downfall of union membership in the United States. On the surface he said, automation and globalization are partly to blame. Yet, peer nations overseas face the same issues and their labor movements remained comparatively strong.
St. Louis Public Radio September 8, 2016 -
Nearly half of Americans have no retirement savings at all, reports the Economic Policy Institute. And while the average retirement savings for American families is $95,776, the large number of families with no savings at all means the median family has just $5,000 saved. The reasons are largely twofold: Many families don’t earn enough to cover basic expenses, and so live paycheck to paycheck, and many workers don’t have easy access to retirement savings accounts. In fact, about half the private sector workforce — approximately 55 million Americans — lack access to a retirement plan through their employers, says the AARP.
The Week September 6, 2016 -
It’s also a brute fact that workers’ wages have declined or stagnated because the bargaining power of employees has been drastically undercut. A just-released study by the Economic Policy Institute showed that the weekly wages of non-union men without college degrees employed in the private sector would have been 8 percent higher in 2013 if union density had remained at 1979 levels.
The Washington Post September 6, 2016 -
None of this mollifies activists who want the ratio to return to more historical norms. They point out that average CEO pay last year was $15.5 million, 276 times more than what an average nonsupervisory worker would make in the private sector. True, that’s not as high as during the dot-com bubble of 2000, when CEO pay soared to 376 times the average worker’s income. But it’s nearly 10 times the 30-to-1 ratio that existed in 1978, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a liberal Washington think tank. And because so much of CEO pay is tied to the price of the company stock, the ratio could rise again if the stock market soars again. CEO pay “is high and I think it’s going to grow,” says Lawrence Mishel, president of EPI. “We’re on track to reestablish a new high.”
The Christian Science Monitor September 5, 2016