The retirement savings gap is growing, according to a chartbook from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute released today. The gap comes as more people are enrolled in defined-contribution plans instead of defined-benefit plans. According to EPI economist Monique Morrissey, “participation in retirement savings plans is highly unequal across income groups. In 2013, nearly nine in 10 families in the top income fifth had retirement account savings, compared with fewer than one in 10 families in the bottom income fifth.” Read the chartbook here: http://bit.ly/1Y2YutD
Politico
March 4, 2016
The Economic Policy Institute makes a basic argument in a new paper it released this morning: The U.S. trade relationship with TPP members is already unbalanced, and the Asia-Pacific pact will just make it worse without enforceable restrictions on currency manipulation. The report, authored by Robert Scott and Elizabeth Glass, says the United States’ $177.9 billion deficit in goods traded with the other TPP countries cost two million jobs last year, including nearly 419,000 direct jobs in commodity and manufacturing industries “that competed with unfairly traded goods from TPP member countries.” This pre-existing trade deficit means the trade deal could be more damaging than the North American Free Trade Agreement, the report says, because the U.S. and Mexico had a balanced trade relationship before NAFTA took effect. Click here to read the full paper: http://bit.ly/1RHQLyC.
Politico
March 4, 2016
Though some members of the Iowa Legislature have yet to figure it out, they are supposed to be working on behalf of Iowans. Raising the minimum wage would do that. A 2012 study from the Economic Policy Institute estimated that increasing the wage to $9.80 per hour would affect 332,000 Iowans, 81 percent of them 20 years old or older.
Des Moines Register
March 4, 2016
Economist Monique Morrissey of the Economic Policy Institute makes this case with 32 charts that present a sobering picture for our nation’s retirees. She first analyzed data from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances for all families with heads of household between the ages of 32 and 61, covering the thirty years before Social Security’s early retirement kicks in at age 62. And she found major disparities caused by the shift from pensions to 401(k) plans.
Fiscal Times
March 4, 2016
Second, even the lowest rate would be the highest state minimum in the country. Vermont’s was the previous leader. That state is on pace to have a $10.50 an hour minimum in 2018, and automatic cost-of-living increases would bring the rate to $11.54 in 2022, according to Economic Policy Institute. The left-leaning think tank tracks wage issues.
Wall Street Journal
March 3, 2016
I wrote about the chart last year in a column about that growing inequality. It’s from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, which issued a report that put wage stagnation for hourly workers up against the growth in productivity. The numbers are stunning.
Detroit Free Press
March 3, 2016
According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, only 26% of Hispanic families had savings in a retirement plan like a 401(k) or IRA, in 2013. Meanwhile, 65% of white families and 41% of black families and 58% of Asian families and those of other races had savings in such accounts. Part of the reason for this gap is that many Hispanics, particularly those that work in low wage jobs, don’t have access to retirement plans, said Monique Morrissey, an economist at the EPI who analyzed data from the Federal Reserve for the report. Immigrant Hispanic workers, for example, are often more likely to be undocumented and therefore working off the books or work in low wage jobs that don’t offer access to retirement accounts, Morrissey said. Native-born Hispanics, however, are more likely to have access to and participate in retirement accounts at rates closer to those of African-Americans, Morrissey said. “Most whites are not doing well, blacks and Hispanics are doing terrible and immigrant Hispanics are doing the worst of all when it comes to retirement savings,” Morrissey said.
CNN Money
March 3, 2016
According to a study of government layoffs published in 2012 by the progressive Economic Policy Institute, women suffered 70 percent of layoffs, while African-Americans suffered 20 percent.
Marketplace
March 3, 2016
Ohio lost 112,500 jobs in 2015 resulting from the United States’ trade deficit with countries that are part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
March 3, 2016
The racial disparity in personal retirement savings is wide and growing. In 2013, the average white household had $125,000 saved in retirement accounts, while the average black household had just $26,500, according to an analysis by the liberal Economic Policy Institute. This discrepancy has increased in recent years, since white savings recovered more quickly after the financial crisis in 2008.
Hispanic workers appear even worse off than blacks, with just $17,000 in savings. The racial disparity means that black and Hispanic workers are especially reliant on other sources of income in retirement — such as residential equity, pensions and, above all, Social Security. “What really matters is Social Security,” said the Economic Policy Institute’s Monique Morrissey, an economist.
The Washington Post
March 2, 2016