Everyone knows the Top 1% have been killing it in recent decades, while most Americans have seen their incomes stagnate. But what if the middle class were doing as well as the richest Americans? What would their annual income be? CNNMoney asked the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning research group, to crunch the numbers. The answer: $156,318.
CNN Money
July 2, 2015
The overtime rules the Department of Labor announced yesterday are hugely important. They would restore in one action most of the overtime protections that have been lost over the past four decades through neglect and hostile regulatory changes, and prevent them from ever eroding again. Altogether, 15 million salaried workers would gain the right to time-and-a-half overtime pay or have their existing rights strengthened. Since the New Deal, the law has protected workers from being forced to work overtime without getting paid for it. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set 40 hours as the standard workweek and made employers pay 150 percent of the regular pay rate for longer hours. That’s why most Americans enjoy a two-day weekend today.
The American Prospect
July 2, 2015
The change affects nearly five million workers, according to the Labor Department. The affected workers include those in many sectors, such as law, public relations, professional services, retail and manufacturing, says Ross Eisenbrey of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Marketplace
July 2, 2015
To overcome this disparity, labor advocates and other experts say, there are two main approaches that promise to increase middle-class wages considerably. The first would be to improve the bargaining power of workers, so that they could claim more of the wealth generated by productivity gains, which the affluent are keeping primarily to themselves. “I do believe the single biggest factor contributing to middle-class wage stagnation is the erosion of unions and collective bargaining rights,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, who has studied the effect of the decline.
The New York Times
July 2, 2015
A threshold of $984 a week would cover 15 million people, according to the liberal Economic Policy Institute. In 1975, overtime rules covered 65 percent of salaried workers. Today, it’s just 12 percent.
The Associated Press
June 30, 2015
Monday night, President Obama announced that he wants to double that threshold, to $50,400 per year. The move would expand the number of people eligible for overtime from about 8 percent of the salaried workforce to about 40 percent, according to a recent analysis by the left-leaning, labor-friendly Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post
June 30, 2015
The increased salary ceiling would bring overtime benefits to about 15 million more workers, Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, told Bloomberg Business.
USA Today
June 30, 2015
In 1975, about 62 percent of the salaried workforce were eligible for overtime pay, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank that advocates for low-income workers. Today, because of inflation, 8 percent are covered.
The Boston Globe
June 30, 2015
The overtime threshold has been updated only once since 1975 and now covers a mere 8 percent of salaried workers, according to a recent analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Raising the threshold to $50,440 would bring it roughly in line with the 1975 threshold, after inflation. Back then, that covered 62 percent of salaried workers. But because of subsequent changes in the economy’s structure, the Obama administration’s proposed rule would cover a smaller percentage — about 40 percent.
Politico
June 30, 2015