Media clips
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For each city, population figures are 2014 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, and housing prices are based on calculations from real estate website Zillow. Cost of living was calculated by CareerTrends, using 2013 data from the Economic Policy Institute. The cost of living index is based on a 100 point scale, with 100 representing the national average. Numbers under 100 mean average cost of living expenses are lower than the national average.
U.S. News & World Report November 20, 2015 -
Now open your eyes and look at the sobering reality. Women’s real hourly earnings in 2014 were just $15.21. That translates to a 71% “gender and inequality wage gap,” the key finding of a new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Economist Elise Gould and researcher Alyssa Davis calculated that gap by combining EPI’s favorite bugaboo, the pay-productivity gap, and that old standby, the gender pay gap. (A previous report on productivity and wages kicked off a vigorous back-and-forth between economists—how you measure matters.)
Wall Street Journal November 19, 2015 -
No matter your preferred source of news, you already know all about how terrible the wage gap is between men and women. By now, both Us Weekly and the New York Times have covered it. Less obvious than the fact that women in every business take home smaller salaries than men, however, is what the hell they should do about it. Thankfully, Elise Gould, a senior economist and the director of health policy research at the Economic Policy institute, and researcher Alyssa Davis have a few ideas. Together, they just released the Women’s Economic Agenda to outline a strategy they say will raise women’s wages and address stagnant workers’ salaries. While they acknowledge that progress has been made over the past three decades, they’re not sugarcoating it: We have serious work to do. Did you know that 40% of the reason that the pay gap has narrowed is because men’s wages have fallen? Yikes. Davis and Gould find that had we closed the pay gap and increased typical workers’ salaries at pace with the productivity growth over the last 30 years, women’s wages would be 70% higher.
Elle November 19, 2015 -
The liberal first-term senator spoke at an event on Capitol Hill unveiling a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank, that highlighted the persistent wage gap between men and women. The report found that women are still paid about 20 percent less than men, and that the small decrease in that gap has occurred largely due to stagnant wages for men, not significant gains by women.
“Over the last several decades women have entered the workforce in record numbers and made great strides in educational attainment,” begins the report, written by EPI’s Alyssa Davis and Elise Gould. “Nevertheless, when compared with men, women are still paid less, are more likely to hold low-wage jobs, and are more likely to live in poverty.”
Mother Jones November 19, 2015 -
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., may not be running for president in 2016, but she was campaigning hard Wednesday to be an agenda-setting power broker. At 9:30 a.m., she joined the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute to release the Women’s Economic Agenda, a list of 12 proposals aimed at closing the gender wage gap. It covers issues such as raising the minimum wage, providing paid family leave and increasing access to child care.
NPR November 19, 2015 -
The wage gap between men and women is finally starting to close—but only because male wages are falling, according to a new briefing paper released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute. “No one in this country should work full-time and live in poverty,” said Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren at a Capitol Hill press conference to release the report, which sets forth a policy agenda for both closing the gender wage gap and boosting bargaining power for low- and moderate-income workers. Also on hand were House Democrat Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut, and labor organizers with the AFL-CIO and the SEIU.
Dubbed “Closing the Pay Gap and Beyond,” the EPI white paper and manifesto found that despite a shrinking gender wage gap, wage gains have remained stagnant over the last decade. In 1979, median hourly earnings for women were 62.7 percent of men’s hourly wages. That gap narrowed in the two decades that followed, but since 2000 it has hovered in the 80 percent rage. In 2014, women’s median hourly earnings were 82.9 percent of men’s.
The American Prospect November 19, 2015 -
Basic laws of economics suggest that employees in the childcare industry should be faring well: The outlook for demand, especially as millennials born between 1981 and 1997 reach prime child-rearing age, is solid. Yet about 15 percent of those workers are living in poverty, compared with 7 percent for all other occupations, according to Census Bureau data analyzed by Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Bloomberg November 19, 2015 -
But this is hardly the first study to recognize that it is impossible for a family of four to live on $60,000 a year. In 2012, when the federal poverty line was $23,283, the Economic Policy Institute discovered that basic needs cost at least twice that amount in 615 of America’s cities. Just two months ago, a census study showed New Jersey was one of only three states that experienced an increase in both number and percentage of people living in poverty.
Newark Star Ledger November 19, 2015 -
The analysis, from the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute, is the first effort to quantify the impact that 25 years of wage stagnation and growing inequality have had on American women’s wages as they caught up with men’s. The researchers found that for women, wage stagnation and the gender pay gap pack a stinging one-two punch. If women earned as much as men, and all workers’ wages kept up with the growing economy, the median hourly wage for all women would be 70% higher than it is today. “What we’re saying is that the gender wage gap isn’t the only way that the economy shortchanges women,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and one of the study’s authors. “Getting to gender parity is important, but it doesn’t improve women’s economic prospects to the greatest possible extent.”
The Guardian November 18, 2015 -
Although women have seen the gender wage gap narrow, much of the gain is attributable to wage stagnation, according to a new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The report finds that since 1979 about 40 percent of the reduction in the male-female gap occurred because men’s wages stagnated rather than because women’s wages grew. According to the report, in 2014 the hourly median wage for women ($15.21) was 82.9 percent that of that for men ($18.35). The report also found that women earn less than men at every education level, and that the gender wage gap is largest among top earners. EPI will release its Women’s Economic Agenda this morning at an event that will include Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler, and SEIU Executive Vice President Rocio Saenz. http://bit.ly/1j6AQ00
Politico November 18, 2015