Pay disparities between men and women start earlier in their careers than frequently assumed and have significantly widened for young workers in the past year, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. Paychecks for young female college graduates are about 79 percent as large as those of their male peers, the think tank found—a serious drop from 84 percent last year.
Young men with a college degree make an average hourly wage of $20.94 right after graduation, according to the EPI figures, compared with the average hourly wage of $16.58 for women. That’s a $9,000 annual difference. Teresa Kroeger, who co-authored the paper, said rising wages for men at the top of the income distribution appear to be exacerbating the chasm. “We suspect this is following the overall trend of the economy,” she said. Men tend to dominate the workforce in the highest-paid career fields, Kroeger said—technology and finance, for example. These fields have enjoyed more wage growth over the past year as pay in others has stagnated. That may explain part of the recently ballooning gap.
The Washington Post
April 29, 2016
The Fed next meets in June, and its most recent forecast indicated plans for two small 0.25 percentage point rate hikes this year. “Today’s anemic growth numbers fully justify the Federal Reserve’s decision this week to not further increase short-term interest rates,” said Josh Bivens, research and policy director for the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank focused on the needs of low- and middle-income workers.
Los Angeles Times
April 29, 2016
On many measures, both groups are among the nation’s most economically strained. Hourly wages for white men with only a high school education, adjusted for inflation, were virtually no higher in 2011 than in 1989, and actually lower than in 2000, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think-tank. Meanwhile, since 2000, as the EPI noted recently, inflation-adjusted wages have remained stagnant for young college graduates, and declined slightly for young workers with only a high-school degree.
The Atlantic
April 29, 2016
WP’s Danielle Paquette: “Pay disparities between men and women start earlier in their careers than frequently assumed and have significantly widened for young workers in the past year, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. Paychecks for young female college graduates are about 79 percent as large as those of their male peers, the think tank found—a serious drop from 84 percent last year.
Politico
April 29, 2016
The results could be eye-popping, based on figures produced for Variety by two firms that track executive and worker pay. The ratio of CEO to median worker pay stood at 20-to-1 in 1965, and had ballooned to more than 300-to-1 by 2014, according to the labor-affiliated Economic Policy Institute. But the prominent companies measured by compensation research firms PayScale and Equilar are paying the boss much, much more than the average worker. Some of the ratios of CEO-to-worker pay are as high as 900-to-1.
Variety
April 28, 2016
American women who are about to graduate from college might want to keep this sobering fact in mind: When they enter the workforce, they’re likely to make a lot less money than the guys sitting next to them at graduation, according to a new Economic Policy Institute study.
U.S. News & World Report
April 28, 2016
Manufacturing is a major industry in Indiana, which holds its primary next week. A 2015 report by the Economic Policy Institute found that manufacturing makes up a larger share of Indiana’s total employment than in any other state.
The Hill
April 28, 2016
Furthermore, the argument that all-white male candidate pools are due to skills shortages among people of color and women also doesn’t hold up. In 2014, 29.9% of men and 30.2% of women had graduated college, according to the US census bureau. A new report published by the Economic Policy Institute also found that recent young black college graduates aged 20 t0 24 “currently have an unemployment rate of 9.4% – higher than the peak unemployment rate for young white college during the recession”, which was 9%.
The Guardian
April 28, 2016
But a new study out Tuesday argues that the gulf forms well before that. At the earliest stages of their careers, female workers with a college degree in the US earn an average hourly wage of $16.58, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning Washington think tank. Young men with a college degree, meanwhile, earn an average of $20.94 an hour – $4.36 more than their female counterparts. That shakes out to a $9,000 annual pay gap.
Christian Science Monitor
April 28, 2016
Of course, millions of women in this country aren’t in this fortunate position, and that’s why I’m writing this. Across 33 states and Washington, D.C., the cost of full-time infant care for one child is more than in-state tuition at a four-year public college. For families with two children, child care costs range from about half as much as rent in San Francisco to nearly three times rent in Binghamton, New York, according to a 2015 report by the Economic Policy Institute. Tax credits and subsidies exist for working families, but they are paltry compared to what you need to pay to have someone watch your child while you commit to a career.
Good Housekeeping
April 28, 2016