All this has been known for a long time, and groups like the liberal Economic Policy Institute have produced dozens of papers documenting the problem. But middle-class wage stagnation, and the inequality that has resulted as compensation at the top has surged, has never been the central economic preoccupation of Washington. It is becoming so now.
The New York Review of Books
February 27, 2015
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a think-tank, if employment had followed the trend of the average recovery in the years since 1945, then an extra 1.2m manufacturing jobs would have been created by the third quarter of 2014.
The Economist
February 27, 2015
A recent Economic Policy Institute study says that eliminating currency manipulation would reduce U.S. trade deficit by as much as $500 billion in three years. This would increase annual U.S. GDP by between $288 billion and $720 billion and create as many as 5.8 Million jobs. About 40 percent of the jobs gained would be in manufacturing.
The Hill
February 27, 2015
A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that real wages fell or were stagnant in 2014 in all income percentiles, except the bottom 10 percent of wage-earners. Wages for that income-decile rose 1.3 percent in 2014, because, EPI says, eighteen states raised their minimum wage above the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 per hour since 2009.
Marketplace
February 26, 2015
At the same time, there’s much national debate about what is a “living wage,” or enough money for a worker to make in order to make ends meet. Most retail workers already make more than the federal minimum wage but not much more. In fact, more than half of retail workers make $10 or less, according to David Cooper of The Economic Policy Institute.
Associated Press
February 26, 2015
Wages are stagnant, and in fact, of all educational groups, workers with bachelor’s and advanced degrees saw the largest decline in real wages between 2013 and 2014, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
PBS News Hour
February 26, 2015
One characteristic of America’s slow economic recovery is the extraordinary number of people who have fallen into the ranks of the long-term unemployed, those unable to find jobs for 27 weeks or more. An estimated 3.4 million fit this description, by the Economic Policy Institute’s measure.
The Washington Post
February 25, 2015
Though productivity (defined as the output of goods and services per hours worked) grew by about 74 percent between 1973 and 2013, compensation for workers grew at a much slower rate of only 9 percent during the same time period, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.
The Atlantic
February 25, 2015
Fifteen million Americans are still stuck in the low wage range between $7.25 and $10 according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CNN Money
February 24, 2015
The trends mirror those in the country at large, where labor has similarly stumbled. Real hourly wages fell for almost everyone nationwide in 2014, according to the Economic Policy Institute, except for the low-wage sector, bolstered by minimum wage increases at the state and local level.
Salon
February 24, 2015