Media clips

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• Clinton’s claim that CEOs make 300 times more than American workers

  The Clinton campaign said she was relying on a study by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, which found that at the top 350 U.S. firms, in terms of sales, average chief executive compensation in 2013 was $15.2 million. It concluded that this was 295.9 times higher than the average compensation of workers at those companies, which was a decline from a peak of 383.4-to-1 in 2000 but far higher than a 20-to-1 ratio in 1965.

  So how does the organization come up with this ratio?

  EPI has published a fairly detailed description of its methodology. For chief executives, it originally used an annual survey published by the Wall Street Journal, and then later switched to buying the information –at a cost of $10,000 a year, according EPI president Lawrence Mishel—from Compustat, a division of Standard & Poor’s. The database includes data on the compensation of the companies in the S&P 1500 Index dating back to 1992, but Mishel says they focus on the top 350 in order to remain consistent with the WSJ data going back to the 1960s.

  The Washington Post April 16, 2015
• Hillary Clinton and the Democrats’ Inequality Agenda

  Traditionally, the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party has emphasized promoting “opportunity” over reducing inequality. As Lawrence Mishel, the president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute, pointed out in a blog post last week, that approach has sometimes enabled centrist Democrats to “avoid confronting the top 1 percent’s capture of the lion’s share of income growth. After all, addressing runaway executive pay and a runaway financial sector—the main causes of the top 1 percent’s income gains—smacks of redistribution; and besides, those folks are their donor base.” With Hillary and her staff about to hit up hedge-fund managers, investment bankers, tech moguls, and other rich folks for hefty campaign contributions, the suspicion lingers that, when it comes down to it, her campaign will punt, rather than directly confront, the entrenched problems of income and wealth inequality.

  The New Yorker April 14, 2015
• Women Still Earn a Lot Less Than Men

  For example, recent research by the Economic Policy Institute shows that men still outearn women at every rung of the income ladder. The higher up the ladder, the bigger the gap. In 2014, women in the 95th percentile of female earners made 79 percent of wages for men at the 95th percentile, while women in the lowest 10th percentile made 91 cents for each $1 earned by their male counterparts.

  The New York Times April 14, 2015
• Low-Wage Workers Deserve Predictable Work Schedules

  Last week, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute released a report on irregular scheduling. It found that 17 percent of the U.S. workforce has “unstable work shift schedules” of some kind, whether due to on-call work schedules or rotating shifts. The report suggests the actual percentage may be higher.

  “Just to get even one hour paid for if someone is sent home before their shift time ends or if they show and there’s no work at all, which I think is the most common complain, that would get employers to reconsider those kind of practices,” said Lonnie Golden, a professor of economics and labor-employment relations at Penn State University and the author of the EPI report.

  The New Republic April 14, 2015
• Hillary Clinton surprises with early attack on CEO pay

  In 1965, CEOs earned about 20 times what a typical worker brought home, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. In 2013, CEO compensation was nearly 300 times the pay of the average worker, the EPI study said.

  Reuters April 14, 2015
• The Challenge Facing Hillary Clinton

  Clinton can call on a wide range of experts, and a number of detailed proposals that Democratic think tanks, such as the centrist Center for American Progress and the liberal Economic Policy Institute have laid out in recent reports. The ideas range from raising the minimum wage and encouraging the growth of trade unions, to changing the tax code and investing in infrastructure.

  The New Yorker April 13, 2015
• The Work-College Revival

  It’s well known that the employment outlook for young workers is dismal: a report released in May, 2014, by the Economic Policy Institute, for example, pointed out that the unemployment rate for those under the age of twenty-five in 2013 was two-thirds as high as the general rate, and the underemployment rate (which measures skilled workers performing in low-paying or low-skill jobs, and part-time workers who would rather be full-time) nearly four-fifths as high as the rate for all workers.

  The New Yorker April 13, 2015
• Despite Federal Regulation, C.E.O.-Worker Pay Gap Data Remains Hidden

  Academic research shows that the worker-to-C.E.O. gulf has been widening. According to a 2014 study by Alyssa Davis and Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning advocacy group in Washington with a reputation for rigorous studies, chief executive pay as a multiple of the typical worker’s pay rocketed from an average of 20 times in 1965 to 295.9 in 2013.

  The New York Times April 13, 2015
• GE casting off lending business in return to its industrial roots

  Nationwide, the crisis has reduced the size of the financial sector but only slightly. After falling to 6.2% of GDP during the crisis, it is now back to 7.2%. “They crawled about a third of the way back since the crisis,” said Josh Bivens, director of research and policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Manufacturing continues to fall and is now at 12.1%.

  Los Angeles Times April 13, 2015
• Fast Track to Lost Jobs and Lower Wages

  See excerpt: This week, Senator Hatch will reportedly introduce “fast track” (trade promotion authority) legislation in the Senate, to help President Obama complete the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade and investment deal with eleven other countries in Asia and the Americas. “Fast Track” authority would allow the President to submit trade agreements to Congress without giving members of Congress the opportunity to amend the deal. Experience has shown that these trade and investment deals typically result in job losses and downward pressure on the wages of most American workers. The last thing America needs is renewal of fast track and more trade and investment deals rushed through Congress.
  The administration has claimed that the TPP will create jobs, but it will not. There are other policies that have attracted bipartisan support, including ending currency manipulation and rebuilding infrastructure that could each create millions of U.S. jobs. President Obama has limited political capital to expend with the Republican-controlled Congress and he must choose his policies wisely.

  The Huffington Post April 13, 2015