The Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank founded in 1986 to study the needs of low- and middle-income workers, this week provided a more accurate measure of what it truly costs to secure an “adequate but modest standard of living” in the United States, circa 2014.
Tampa Bay Times
September 1, 2015
A new Economic Policy Institute report finds that, no matter where they live in the United States, minimum wage workers earn far less than they need to make ends meet. (Tweet This) Compiling data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Highway Administration, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and several other sources, the nonpartisan think tank found that the average cost of living in the U.S., excluding discretionary spending, is more than $65,000 a year for a family with two adults and two children. That’s roughly $50,000 more than what a minimum-wage worker earns. The EPI also looked at the cost of living for single adults and found similar disparities.
CNBC
September 1, 2015
The shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has ignited a nationwide conversation about racial polarization and civil unrest when it comes to relationships with minorities and the police. During this River to River interview, host Ben Kieffer talks with Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and the author of The Making of Ferguson: Public Policies at the Root of Its Troubles. Rothstein says the racial tension is due in part to housing policies and government programs that created an “invisible fence” to segregate metropolitan communities around the country.
Iowa Public Radio
September 1, 2015
Wall Street Journal
August 28, 2015
Now, the Economic Policy Institute has developed a nifty new tool that shows exactly how much money you have to shell out to live in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and other regions throughout the country. Here’s what the think tank found it takes for a family with two adults and two children to survive here…One interesting takeaway? At $14,630, a family’s estimated annual child care costs in the Philadelphia metro are higher than its housing costs, which are approximately $13,620. CityLab reported that Philly is not unique in this way: “In 500 out of the 618 areas analyzed, child care costs more than housing for such families, says Elise Gould, senior economist and director of health policy research at the institute.”
Philadelphia Magazine
August 28, 2015
The analysis, released by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, is an annual update of the think tank’s Family Budget Calculator that reflects new 2014 data. The Family Budget Calculator is a formula designed to determine the income “required for families to attain a secure yet modest standard of living” in 618 different communities across the country that the U.S. Census Bureau defines as metropolitan areas.
The Huffington Post
August 28, 2015
According to a new paper by the left-leaning think tank the Economic Policy Institute, most families subsiding on minimum-wage jobs would struggle to achieve a modest but secure quality of life, no matter where in the United States they reside.
Fortune
August 28, 2015
Josh Bivens, the progressive Economic Policy Institute’s research and policy director, applauded the Fed’s move away from an interest rate hike, but said the reason for the Fed’s decision confirmed the need for more grassroots activism. “A week ago the case against raising rates for the labor market was clear as day, but all of a sudden when wealthy people lost money in the stock market the tide turned against a rate increase,” Bivens said at Thursday’s press conference. “I’m happy rates are less likely to go up because of that, but it is a terrible reason.”
The Huffington Post
August 28, 2015
But an even more nuanced measurement of economic well-being is the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator, which was updated yesterday to include 2014 numbers. The EPI calculator estimates how much it costs to “attain a secure yet modest living standard,” and provides data on ten different family sizes (one or two parents, with zero to five children) across 618 distinct geographic areas and cities.
The American Prospect
August 28, 2015
But among black communities nationwide, DeKalb has actually fared relatively well. The area was hit hard by the downturn, but it remains the second-most affluent black-majority county in the country. By contrast, in Washington, D.C., a majority-minority city, black unemployment is a staggering 15.8 percent, more than five times the rate for whites, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The American Prospect
August 28, 2015