While it’s no surprise that CEOs make a lot of money, the actual pay gap between top chiefs and rest of America’s biggest earners is startling: The average CEO at one of the 350 largest companies takes home more than five times the annual earnings of the average 0.1 percenter. According to a new report on CEO pay from the Economic Policy Institute, chief executives at those 350 companies made $15.6 million on average in 2016—271 times what the typical worker earns. (whole story)
Fortune | July 21, 2017
EPI: CEO PAY STILL REALLY HIGH: A report out today from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute concludes that CEO pay, though it’s declined a bit relative to average wages, remains absurdly high relative to that average. Factoring in stock options realized (on top of salary, bonuses, restricted stock grants, and long-term incentive payouts), “in 2016 CEOs in America’s largest firms made an average of $15.6 million in compensation, or 271 times the annual average pay of the typical worker,” write EPI’s Lawrence Mishel and Jessica Schieder. “While the 2016 CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of 271-to-1 is down from 299-to-1 in 2014 and 286-to-1 in 2015, it is still light years beyond the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965 and the 59-to-1 ratio in 1989.” Read the full report here.
Politico | July 21, 2017
In 2016, CEOs at America’s largest firms made, on average, 271 times more than the average US worker. Fifty years ago, that ratio was 20-to-1.
The CEO-to-worker pay ratio, calculated annually by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, has narrowed slightly in recent years; in 2014, it was 299-to-1. But it has grown by an order of magnitude since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping data in the 1960s, and has even doubled many times over since the late 1980s, when it was 59-to-1. (whole story)
Bill Moyers | July 21, 2017
In April, Trump ordered the Department of Commerce to investigate steel imports under a little-known part of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Section 232, which allows the executive branch to place import restrictions or tariffs on steel for national security reasons. “Steel and aluminum are vital for U.S. national defense and critical infrastructure,” Robert E. Scott of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center think tank, said in a piece supporting the idea. “The military needs high quality steel and aluminum to make products ranging from helmets and tanks to rocket fuel, fighter jets and aircraft carriers.” Foreign trade practices have made it impossible for the United States to supply its own steel for defense purposes, the theory goes.
The Atlantic | July 21, 2017
Another Reason Why It’s Great The BBC Revealed Anchors’ Salaries
The Huffington Post/Emily Peck
“If you don’t have the information, you can’t act on it,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute who studies the pay gap, told HuffPost. She pointed out that in unionized workplaces, where employees have more information about pay, there are smaller pay disparities between genders. In any workplace, information is power. Workers can’t advocate for equal pay until they know where they stand, compared with their colleagues. Public pressure that comes from releasing detailed information helps, too, Gould added.
The Huffington Post | July 21, 2017
Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, said the increase was “hypocritical.”
“The signs started pointing to a crackdown on the high-skilled visas — even if it was symbolic — and now it seems like there might be an expansion on the low-skilled ones,” Costa said. “The Republican party is pretty split when it comes to labor migration issues, and I think there is going to be a back-and-forth every time an issue like this comes out.”
San Francisco Chronicle | July 21, 2017
In its announcement, the Department of Homeland Security noted that businesses only qualify for the visas if they can prove that they are likely to “suffer irreparable harm” if unable to hire foreign workers. But critics are skeptical that labor shortages are as severe as companies claim. The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank that Trump has aligned himself with on certain issues, argued in a recent report that almost all of the top 10 occupations for H-2B workers have relatively high unemployment rates and have experienced stagnant or declining wages since 2004. That, the group argues, suggests there is no shortage of available workers, at least on a national level. (The report does note that it is possible that states and local areas are experiencing a limited labor pool for these jobs but claims the H-2B program maintains a framework that exploits foreign workers.)
FiveThirtyEight | July 21, 2017
The pay gap between company bigwigs and ordinary working stiffs is narrowing, but there’s still a major chasm. CEOs at the largest U.S. firms now make 271 times more than the average worker, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute for 2016 salary numbers. Including stock options, average pay for those at the top of the corporate ladder came to $15.6 million in the group that the EPI examined. (whole story)
CNBC | July 20, 2017
The CEOs of America’s largest firms made an average of $15.6m in compensation last year, or 271 times the annual average pay of the typical worker, according to an analysis released Thursday. The study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) looked at compensation, including share options and other benefits, for the top bosses of the largest 350 companies in the US in 2016. Lawrence Mishel, EPI president and co-author of the report, said he was surprised to see a small dip in pay this year. The 2016 CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of 271-to-1 is down from 299-to-1 in 2014 and 286-to-1 in 2015. But the report points out it is still “light years beyond the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965 and the 59-to-1 ratio in 1989”. (whole story)
The Guardian | July 20, 2017
A study by the Economic Policy Institute says the chief executive officers of America’s largest firms were paid an average of $15.6 million each in 2016. In a report published Thursday, authors Lawrence Mischel and Jessica Schieder say that amount is 271 times as much as a “typical” worker’s earnings at those same corporations. That boss-to-worker pay ratio is slightly lower than it has been in the past few years, but is still “light years” higher than the 20-to-1 gap between workers and bosses in 1965, or the 59-to-1 difference that was measured in 1989. (whole story)
Voice of America | July 20, 2017
“I think generally increasing the number of workers in a program that is this flawed doesn’t make a lot of sense,” says Daniel Costa of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “I think that [the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor] should focus on fixing the program, and making sure there are more worker protections in place.” Some safeguards are in place now. Employers must run job ads in local papers before hiring guest workers, and they have to pay a government-set prevailing wage. But Costa thinks exploitation is still too easy with each worker tethered to the employee that procured their visa.
PRI | July 20, 2017
Daniel Costa with the Economic Policy Institute said that the visa is ripe for abuse. “So many employers are claiming they have labor shortages,” Costa said, “but nationwide – we don’t see that evidence.” Costa is also concerned that H-2B workers aren’t paid what they should be and are open to exploitation, given that their status in the U.S. is tied to their employer. Costa said he’s not opposed to immigration but wants a level playing field. “It has to be fair to migrant workers,” Costa said, “but also the U.S. workers should have a fair shot at those jobs and not be discriminated against.”
Fox News | July 19, 2017
Congressional leaders should consider a different tack: an infrastructure spending bill. For political reasons, an infrastructure bill would be an easy A for representatives to take home to their communities. Passing a bill on infrastructure could deliver the kind of win that has been elusive for the 117th Congress so far. And, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, there are key macroeconomic reasons to invest in infrastructure, too. The report outlines two longstanding problems with the U.S. economy. One is a spending shortfall across households, business, and the government, which amounts to a dip in aggregate demand. The other is a slowdown in the growth of productivity. Capital investments in infrastructure could sort out both of these problems, according to Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute and the report’s author. (EPI cited and Josh quoted throughout. EPI chart used. )
CityLab | July 19, 2017
But Celine McNicholas, labor counsel at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the changes, plus proposed deep cuts to the Labor Department’s budget, are alarming. While budget tightening and pro-business policies are to be expected with a Republican White House, the size and targets of the cuts and the number of rules being rolled back are “not business as usual,” she said. “If you consider all that, I would argue that the first six months of the Trump administration have been devastating for workers in this country — unprecedented even,” said McNicholas, who served as special counsel at the NLRB during the Obama administration.
Chicago Tribune | July 19, 2017
Labor Advocates Lament Lack of Protections in New Foreign-Worker Visas
Public News Service/Suzanne Potter
Daniel Costa, director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, says the program ought to be reformed to protect workers from abuse, not expanded. “The way the program is set up, it ties workers to one employer,” he says. “So if they leave that job or if they get fired, they basically lose that visa status and become deportable. And so it gives employers a lot of power over workers.” The Trump administration says it simply is trying to accommodate requests from employers who are desperate for laborers. The current limit for H-2B visas is 66,000 – so this will bring that number up to 81,000. In a recent report, Costa found there is no nationwide shortage of workers in those fields. In fact, unemployment has been high and wages have been flat in these types of jobs for more than a decade. (Daniel quoted throughout)
Public News Service | July 19, 2017
Even with these requirements, some fear that the new visas interrupt a trend in raising wages to attract American workers to seasonal and temporary jobs. And Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, told Reuters, “Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market.”
FindLaw | July 19, 2017
Trump Administration Adds More Foreign Guest Worker Visas
The Huffington Post/Dave Jamieson
Daniel Costa, an immigration expert at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said there is no real evidence of a nationwide labor shortage in the industries that rely on H-2B visas, although employers could be strapped in certain geographic areas. In an analysis of 10 occupations, Acosta said he found that wages had remained stagnant or declined in nine of them ― an indication that employers aren’t raising wages the way they normally would if they had to attract workers. The available data “suggests that raising the H-2B cap is a bad idea,” Costa said in an email. Instead of adding more visas, the White House should focus “on program oversight, on rooting out bad-actor employers who violate H-2B rules, and on protecting the migrant workers who come to the United States in search of better opportunities.”
The Huffington Post | July 18, 2017
U.S. allows more seasonal workers as Trump pushes ‘hire American’
Reuters/ Doina Chiacu and David Shepardson
A report on Monday by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, found, however, there was little evidence of worker shortages in H-2B jobs at the national level.
“Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the institute.
Reuters | July 18, 2017
Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, questioned whether the labor shortages claimed by businesses that rely on H-2B visas is real. The group has found wages to be stagnant or in decline in most industries that use the visas, a point that would undercut claims of a shortage. “Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market,” Costa said in a statement.
Baltimore Sun | July 18, 2017
But Daniel Costa, who directs immigration research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said that the H2B program lacks enough enforcement to make sure American workers can benefit. As it stands, Costa said, employers can advertise jobs to Americans with unusually low wages and create a “fake labor shortage” that they’re then allowed to fill with vulnerable, easily exploited foreign workers. “Nationally, there isn’t actual evidence of labor shortages people talk about,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t some shortages in some places, but there need to be rules in place to ensure that a fair wage is being offered to American workers first.”
NBC Los Angeles | July 18, 2017
The program allows companies to bring in 66,000 new workers each year — and also to keep workers who got visas in the prior two years. The rules allow companies to maintain a workforce of roughly 115,000 H-2B workers in the United States, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute.
Breitbart | July 18, 2017
Well, for starters, profits. Existing trade laws and promise of cheap labor have enticed American companies to manufacture in places like China. A 2014 report by the Economic Policy Institute said that trade with China moved 3.2 million jobs out of the U.S. between 2001 and 2013. The report said that trade with China caused job losses in all 50 states and 2.4 million of those jobs were manufacturing jobs. “Growing trade deficits with China have hurt American workers and decimated U.S. manufacturing,” EPI Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research Robert E. Scott said in a December 2014 press release. “If policymakers are serious about supporting manufacturing jobs, we must work to put an end to China’s unfair trade policies.”
ATTN: | July 18, 2017
Factor No. 2: Anemic teacher pay
· The temptation to go back for a master’s is even stronger because public school teacher pay has been suffering in general. According to a 2016 report by the Economic Policy Institute, teachers earn 17 percent less than similarly educated workers in other fields. In 1994, the gap was just 1.8 percent.
NPR | July 16, 2017
Robert E. Scott, a senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research for the Economic Policy Institute, in a blog post Tuesday underscored the dilemma in economic sanctions.
One segment of the economy – manufacturers that use cheaper foreign steel – could be hamstrung with rising materials costs, he said.
The Detroit Metro Times | July 16, 2017
And economist Elise Gould from the Economic Policy Institute has estimated that the cost for lead paint hazard control just for homes considered to be a significant risk — because the homes had a combination of both lead paint hazards and low income families with children under the age of 6 years — is an estimated $1.2 to $11.0 billion. Gould also found that the benefits of tackling lead contamination on a widespread scale are substantial given the costs of medical treatment, lost earnings, tax revenue, special education, lead-linked attention deficit hyperactivity disorder cases, and criminal activity.
Think Progress | July 15, 2017
But premium subsidies would be less generous under the Senate plan, according to Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. And cost-sharing subsidies would disappear, so workers would pay more out of pocket. … “Pre-ACA, to get really good insurance, you needed a job, period,” Bivens said. After it passed, “you could decide to work non-traditional jobs and have decent insurance you could rely on.”
Mashable | July 15, 2017
U.S. employers added a robust 222,000 jobs in June, the most in four months, a reassuring sign that businesses may be confident enough to keep hiring despite a slow-growing economy.
But despite the promising job growth, wage growth still disappoints, according to the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. EPI noted in a release that the U.S. needs to add at least 232,000 jobs per month over the next year to lower the unemployment rate to 4 percent and bring another million workers back in from the sidelines. (EPI cited throughout and Dan C. quoted)
The Reading Eagle | July 15, 2017
Those admitted to the U.S. on the basis of merit have accounted for less than 10 percent of all legal immigrants over the past 15 years, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute and the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Yearbook, and Trump pledged as a presidential candidate to shift the U.S. to a merit-based immigration system.
Politico | July 13, 2017
And though many in the education space would argue that a two to four year degree is absolutely necessary for students to be able to get a job, a 2016 report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the unemployment rate for college graduates still hovers around 5.6% and underemployment at 12.6%, with a 9.4% unemployment rate for black college graduates. And overall, wages for both high school and college are still fairly progressing poorly, having had little to no growth since 2000.
Education Dive | July 13, 2017
Can’t find good workers? Pay up!
CNN Money/Patrick Gillespie
Jobs may be going unfilled, says Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left learning research group. But, he asks, “at what wage? That’s the question. Will employers start to make job conditions better to attract more workers? If they’re not doing that, then they’re not facing much of a shortage.”
CNN Money | July 12, 2017