The Hill | March 14, 2018
About 60 million people—more than half of the non-union private sector workforce—are covered by mandatory arbitration agreements, according to an Economic Policy Institute study. These agreements require employees to resolve disputes through private arbitrators chosen by employers, rather than go through the courts.
Fast Company | March 14, 2018
About 60.1 million workers in the U.S. are beholden to mandatory arbitration clauses, according to a study released last year by the progressive Economic Policy Institute. Many of them have no idea; you can agree to give up your right to file a lawsuit simply by accepting an employee handbook. Employees win in arbitration only 21 percent of the time, according to an earlier paper from EPI ― a much lower rate than you’d find in state or federal court. And if they win, monetary damages are far lower as well ― less than half of what a victim would be awarded in court. If a victim loses, many companies will require her to pay arbitration fees.
The Huffington Post | March 14, 2018
It has been 50 years since the historic Kerner Commission found that discrimination against African-Americans had created barriers to their ability to be successful in civic life. The commission, formally known as the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, was established after America’s 1967 race riots. Researchers from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) have analyzed some of the same measurements of success in a new report, to discover whether – and to what extent – the same barriers exist. … The EPI analysis found that African-American workers continue to earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by white workers, and said virtually no progress has been made in the rate of home ownership.
Public News Service | March 14, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute notes that without homeownership, among other things, black wealth has suffered. The median wealth of a black family is $17,409, compared to $171,000 for a white family—nearly 10 times as much. Because homeownership has been so central to America’s post-war economy, those shut out of it tend to be left behind.
Curbed | March 14, 2018
A new Economic Policy Institute study by Jeffrey Keefe, a Rutgers University professor emeritus, finds that Pennsylvania’s public school teachers earn 6.8 percent less, even after accounting for pension benefits, than similarly educated and skilled workers in the state. Looking to the future, Keefe finds that recent cuts in pension benefits for new teachers enacted in June will boost the pay penalty that new teachers face to 10 percent.
The Times-Tribune | March 14, 2018
Yet in some states, teachers are earning close to poverty wages, as the West Virginia strike and the threatened Oklahoma strike have demonstrated. Indeed, those two states offer compensation roughly a third lower than the national average for all public teachers, numbers that do not look much better adjusting for the cost of living. Moreover, there is data demonstrating that the teacher pay gap—meaning what public-school teachers earn compared with comparably qualified individuals in the private sector—is large and growing. The left-of-center Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has found that teachers’ average weekly wages actually fell $30 per week between 1996 and 2015 after adjusting for inflation, whereas they increased measurably among all college graduates. EPI also has estimated that public-school teachers were earning about 2 percent less than comparably qualified private-sector workers in 1994, a disparity measure that grew to 17 percent by 2015. “Teachers actually gained ground in the depths of the recession, as their pay didn’t fall, whereas pay for other workers did,” Larry Mishel, an economist at EPI, told me. “But when there was a recovery, they didn’t get much recovery.” Indeed, as state and local finances rebounded, many red and purple states cut their income taxes, with property taxes remaining depressed due to the subprime-mortgage crisis. The result: sharp declines in public-school funding per student, reduced salary increases through the recovery, and widespread teacher shortages. Teacher enrollments dropped from 691,000 in 2009 to just 451,000 a year in 2004 as attrition—meaning the share of educators dropping out of the profession—hit 8 percent a year. Nationwide, the number of teachers and other school workers has fallen by 135,000 since 2008, a recent analysis of government data by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-of-center think tank, found. Yet as that number declined, the number of students rose by 1.4 million.
The Atlantic | March 14, 2018
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a single adult in Denver needs to earn more than $41,000 a year, or nearly double the current minimum wage, just to meet basic needs such as housing. A single parent with one child has to earn $72,000 dollars to get by in Pueblo, and $59,000 in Grand Junction.
Public News Service | March 14, 2018
One major cities in Upstate New York, Buffalo ranks the lowest in cost of living, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. According to WKBW A family of four, with two adults and two children, could maintain a “modest yet adequate” standard of living in Buffalo for $7,339 per month or $88,071 per year. For comparison, the closest city to those numbers upstate is Rochester where the same standard of living could be maintained for $7,775 per month or $93,296 per year. Check out this family budget calculator which will show you what it estimates different sized families need to make in order to have a modest standard of living in locations across the country. (whole story)
WBLK | March 14, 2018
If you’re a family of four in Solano County, you need about $7,500 per month, or nearly $90,000 annually, to live halfway decently, a new report shows. That same family in Napa County needs about $103,000 annually or nearly $9,000 per month to maintain that same modest lifestyle, it shows. The Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator measures the income a family needs to attain a “modest yet adequate” standard of living, Institute officials said. The budgets estimate community-specific costs for 10 family types (one or two adults with zero to four children) in all counties and metro areas in the United States. It offers a more accurate measure of economic security in the U.S. than the federal poverty line and the Supplemental Poverty Measure, they said. (whole story)
Vallejo Times-Herald | March 14, 2018
Of major cities in Upstate New York, Buffalo ranks the lowest in cost of living, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. A family of four, with two adults and two children, could maintain a “modest yet adequate” standard of living in Buffalo for $7,339 per month or $88,071 per year. For comparison, the closest city to those numbers upstate is Rochester where the same standard of living could be maintained for $7,775 per month or $93,296 per year. A family of four, with two adults and two children, could maintain a “modest yet adequate” standard of living in Buffalo for $7,339 per month or $88,071 per year. For comparison, the closest city to those numbers upstate is Rochester where the same standard of living could be maintained for $7,775 per month or $93,296 per year. (whole story)
WKBW | March 14, 2018
It’s not just you: Miami really is one of the least affordable places to live in the country. But it’s not only because of the high cost of housing, healthcare, transportation and taxes. A family of four spends almost $85,000 per year to live in Miami-Dade County, according to the updated Family Budget Calculator released by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive Washington-based think tank. Along with the above-mentioned items, the calculator estimates costs for food, child care and “other necessities.” That makes Miami the 41st most expensive place to live among America’s largest 100 metros when measured in pure cost. The EPI study mirrors previous surveys that have ranked Miami as high on costs, low on wages, and adds further context to how difficult it is to make ends meet here. (whole story)
The Miami Herald | March 14, 2018
If you think it’s expensive to live in Los Angeles County, you’d be right. The Economic Policy Institute’s latest Family Budget Calculator shows that a family of two adults and two children in L.A. County need to earn $7,691 a month, or $92,295 a year, to meet all of its living expenses. That outstrips L.A. County’s median family income, which is just $66,203 per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The Family Budget Calculator estimates that family of four will pay $1,663 a month for housing, $830 for food, $1,223 for child care, $1,159 for transportation, $795 for health care, $1,006 for other necessities and $1,016 for taxes. A household with just two adults can get by for much less, as they need to earn $4,697 a month, or $56,361 a year. Zane Mokhiber, a research analyst with the EPI, notes that the annual totals are sometimes off by a few dollars because the various monthly expenses were rounded up or down. (whole story)
Los Angeles Daily News | March 14, 2018
That’s according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The organization’s Family Budget Calculator shows what’s required for families to maintain a modest standard of living in different areas of the U.S. The annual cost of living in the Syracuse and Albany metro areas topped Buffalo at $96,173 and $101,855, respectively. New York City, including Long Island, ranked highest in the state at $124,129. Why is it so much cheaper to live in Erie and Niagara counties? EPI research assistant Zane Mokhiber pointed to Buffalo’s housing prices,which tend to be lower than other cities across the state. (whole story)
Buffalo Business First | March 14, 2018
Another common industry argument is that raising the tipped minimum wage is ultimately bad for workers. Customers will tip less, that thinking goes, if they know restaurants must pay waiters and bartenders at least the regular minimum wage. There’s no evidence to back up that claim. Waiters and other tipped workers in California and the six other states without a subminimum tipped wage — Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Montana and Minnesota — earn more money and are less likely to live in poverty, according to government data analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute, a research organization. (An eighth state, Hawaii, has effectively eliminated the subminimum wage by letting businesses pay tipped workers 75 cents an hour less than the state’s minimum wage of $10.10, but only if those workers earn at least $7 an hour in tips.)
The New York Times | March 13, 2018
Analyst Janelle Jones at the Economic Policy Institute called the recent decline in African-American unemployment “real improvement, it’s a positive trend for black workers.” But she pointed out that other measures of job market success for African-Americans are not as remarkable. “Discouraged workers, underemployed — those are definitely still high for black workers.” The Labor Department defines “discouraged workers” as those who want a job but have given up looking and the “underemployed” as people working part time because they can’t find full-time work. In the past decade, the racial gap in unemployment should have narrowed more, given rising levels of education and job skills among African-Americans, Jones said. (Janelle and EPI quoted throughout)
Marketplace | March 13, 2018
We have good news and bad news. The good news? A new study finds that manufacturing still punches above its weight when it comes to wages. Factory workers earn 13 percent more in hourly compensation than other workers in similar private-sector fields, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) study, continuing a long-standing trend that manufacturing offers Americans good-paying work that also serves as a pathway for many to join the middle class. Manufacturing workers also enjoy an advantage in benefits, including when it comes to health insurance and retirement. (whole story)
Alliance for American Manufacturing | March 13, 2018
A brief issued by the Economic Policy Institute indicates that Black women could be especially hurt by the case due to their high participation in public sector union jobs.
Philadelphia Tribune | March 13, 2018
Over the last 50 years in America, the gap between what the typical black household earns and what the typical white household earns has barely budged. According to a report published last month by the Economic Policy Institute, the median black family’s household income in 1968 was 59 percent of the median white family’s income; in 2018, it was only 61.6 percent.
Pacific Standard | March 13, 2018
Fifty years on, mixed progress for black Americans Valerie Wilson for the Economic Policy Institute: Anniversaries of major events are nearly irresistible opportunities to reflect on the past, often with the hope that there has been some progress. So it is this year, 50 years after the Kerner Commission Report on Civil Disorders found systemic inequality and racial discrimination to be at the root of riots across America. In a new report, Janelle Jones, John Schmitt, and I present statistics showing what life was like for African Americans in this country 50 years ago compared to now. That document is a straightforward, unfiltered presentation of the facts, covering a wide range of economic, social, and health outcomes. In the spirit of reflection, I want to focus on racial economic inequality in the labor market, which directly affects approximately 20 million African Americans who get up every day and either go to work or go to find work. (study covered throughout)
The Washington Examiner | March 13, 2018
Tommy talks with Elise Gould, Senior Economist at the Economic Policy Institute, about how much it costs to live a decent but modest life in the New Orleans area.
WWL.com | March 13, 2018
According to a calculator released last week by think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a single parent with two kids needs $64,170 annually to achieve a “modest but adequate” standard of living in Orleans Parish. EPI estimates housing costs at $12,016 annually, child care costs at $10,093 and transportation at $9,808. Median household income in New Orleans is $37,488, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Gambit | March 13, 2018
That insecurity highlights the unique challenges women face when it comes to saving for their later years. A typical woman makes 84 cents to the dollar that a male worker earns, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC | March 12, 2018
Valerie Wilson, demographic economist at Economic Policy Institute, points to huge disparities in wealth. Since the early 1960s, median black wealth has climbed from $2,647 to $17,409 in 2016, while wealth among whites has climbed from $47,655 to $171,000 according to data analysis by EPI. “There’s not that store of wealth in terms of homeownership, savings, inheritance, or any of the kinds of assets that appreciate and grow in value,” she said. “The rising labor-force participation rate, assuming the majority that are participating are getting gainful employment, will increase wages, but that doesn’t translate as quickly into increased wealth.”
The Wall Street Journal | March 12, 2018
Last week, the Economic Policy Institute published a report, stating what many of us already know – that in the 50 years since the U.S. government took the decision to document segregation, poverty and racism in America, many of the problems identified half a century ago are still with us. Indeed, some have gotten worse.
The Huffington Post | March 12, 2018
A report released by the Economic Policy Institute shows that there has been no progress for African Americans in comparison to whites regarding employment, homeownership and incarceration since the release of the Kerner Commission in 1968. (whole story)
Axios | March 12, 2018
There’s been an outpouring of global disapproval of the tariffs on steel and aluminium imports announced by the White House. Rob speaks ~1:03 and 1:41
Al Jazeera English | March 12, 2018
Many economists and business owners question the Trump administration’s argument that foreign-made steel and aluminum — some of which goes into American-made cars, kitchen appliances and beer cans — is a risk to national security. “This would certainly push the limits on that,” says Robert Scott, a trade expert at the Economic Policy Institute. But Scott notes: “The WTO can’t really force you to change your trade policy.”
CNN Money | March 12, 2018
Guests: Heather Long, Edward Alden, Josh Bivens
WHYY | March 12, 2018
The AFL-CIO and its unions argued long and hard against the present 24-year-old NAFTA, pushed through by Democratic President Bill Clinton. They forecast, accurately, that it would cost U.S. jobs. The Economic Policy Institute puts the job losses at 700,000-1 million.
Press Associates Inc. | March 12, 2018