After allowing for regional economic and demographic variables, wages in right-to-work states are 3.2 percent lower than in states without the anti-union laws, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute, which advocates on behalf of workers.
Kansas City Star
September 10, 2015
The Times called the Fed a “crucial player” in efforts to undo the decades-long trend of worker wages not growing in sync with the broader economy. The paper noted that from 1973 to 2014, median worker pay rose 7.8 percent while overall productivity increased by 72 percent, a finding published Wednesday in a report from the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The Huffington Post
September 9, 2015
Recently, cities and counties have taken the lead on mandating much higher pay for traditional low-wage jobs, instead of waiting for the states or the federal government. Supporters say these increases are long overdue and only fair, but others warn of unintended consequences, including job losses and cutbacks in hours.
- David Cooper – economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, focusing on labor markets and minimum wage
- Lydia DePillis – Washington Post reporter covering labor, business, and housing.
- Aparna Mathur – resident scholar in economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute. She is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School Of Public Policy.
New Hampshire Public Radio
September 9, 2015
Why has worker pay withered? The answer, in large part, is that rising productivity has increasingly boosted corporate profits, executive compensation and shareholder returns rather than worker pay. Chief executives, for example, now make about 300 times more than typical workers, compared with 30 times more in 1980, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Other research shows far greater discrepancies at some companies.
The New York Times
September 8, 2015
Still in Sydney (next stop Tokyo), where it’s much too beautiful a day to sit inside blogging. But I did want to flag an excellent report by Josh Bivens and Larry Mishel on the productivity-pay gap. The divergence between pay and productivity — a lot of productivity gains, almost total failure to trickle down—is one of the most striking features of American economics these past 40 (!) years. It’s also the subject of endless attempts at debunking, of claims that the divergence is somehow a statistical artifact. What Bivens and Mishel do is take on these arguments carefully, not dismissing them completely, but showing that they explain only a fraction of what we see.
The New York Times
September 8, 2015
The chart, part of a broader research series from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, has struck a chord. Hillary Clinton tweeted a version of it following her first major economic policy speech in July, and has clearly leaned on EPI research in calling for policies that boost wages.
Wall Street Journal
September 8, 2015
As a new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows, decades ago, the compensation of the typical worker closely tracked productivity growth. But since the mid-1970s, inequality has increasingly diverted growth from middle- and low-wage workers, such that productivity is up 72 percent while the compensation of the typical, or median, worker is up just 9 percent — over 40 years!
The Washington Post
September 8, 2015
We’re also earning less: Wages have been stagnant for the past 35 years, according to the Economic Policy Institute, despite a 64% rise in productivity over the same period. Hourly wages dropped at almost every level between 2013 and 2014, and those with college or advanced degrees felt it the most, the institute said.
It’s not helping us work any better either — research suggests that on-the-job stress contributes to poor performance, too. It’s even rubbing off on our kids: Another Economic Policy Institute study says that children of parents who work irregular shifts are more likely to have thinking and behavior problems than kids of parents who clock in consistently.
New York Daily News
September 8, 2015
In all the chatter about our “jobless recovery,” how often does someone explain the simple feat by which this is actually accomplished? US productivity increased twice as fast in 2009 as it had in 2008, and twice as fast again in 2010: workforce down, output up, and voilá! No wonder corporate profits are up 22 percent since 2007, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute. To repeat: Up. Twenty-two. Percent.
Mother Jones
September 8, 2015
But even 2.2 percent wage inflation is considered anemic by many economists. That rate of income gain is well below the 3.5 percent to 4.0 percent rate of increase that would meet the Federal Reserve’s inflation target, according to a briefing by the Economic Policy Institute, and would enable American workers get ahead after the bite that price inflation takes out of their wages. With nominal wages having increased in the 1.8 to 2.2 percent range over the past several years of economic recovery, Americans are just barely keeping up with inflation, according to EPI.
Marketplace
September 8, 2015