In 26 states, average teacher salaries, adjusted for inflation, were less in 2016 than they were at the end of the 20th century, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Two years ago, an Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report documented the dive in weekly wages for teachers compared to other workers with comparable education requirements. In 2015, an average teacher made 17 percent less than comparable workers in salary. Back in 1994, the salary gap was 1.8 percent. Traditionally, fringe benefits helped compensate for lower teacher salaries, and teacher benefits are still far richer than in the private sector. But reforms have dramatically eaten into the pension benefits for newer workers at the same time that both employee and employer contributions have risen. In fact, when taking pensions into account, EPI concluded that teachers were lagging in total compensation by 11 percent.
Governing | May 10, 2018
Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Governor Mark Dayton in Minnesota, along with lawmakers, have enacted vastly different policy agendas with an outsized impact on working families. Today, independent, nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI)(link is external) released a study arguing that by virtually every metric, Minnesota’s economy has performed far better for working families than Wisconsin’s since governors Mark Dayton and Scott Walker were elected in 2010. (whole story)
Workday Minnesota | May 9, 2018
Minnesota outpaces Wisconsin, report says, in latest volley over liberal vs. conservative policies
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Craig Gilbert
Ever since northern neighbors Wisconsin and Minnesota veered off in opposite directions politically, a rhetorical border war has been fanned over the competing parties and policies that have guided them. The latest volley comes from a liberal research group, the Economic Policy Institute, which finds that “on a multitude of key measures, Minnesota’s economic performance over the past seven years has been markedly better than that of its neighbor to the east.” Put another way, Minnesota has fared better economically under Democrats than Wisconsin has under Republicans, according to a study released Tuesday by the Washington, D.C.-based organization. (whole story)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | May 9, 2018
Economic Policy Institute senior economic analyst David Cooper examined the performance of Minnesota and Wisconsin during the tenures of Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and says by virtually every metric, Minnesota’s economy performed far better for working families than Wisconsin’s in the last seven years. Since taking office in 2010, Dayton and Walker have pursued vastly different state economic policy agendas. Because of the proximity and similarities of the two states, comparing their economic performance provides a compelling case study for assessing which agenda leads to better outcomes for working people. “Policymakers in Wisconsin have pursued a highly conservative agenda centered on cutting taxes for the rich, shrinking government, and weakening unions,” Cooper stated in a news release. “In contrast, Minnesota has enacted a slate of progressive priorities like raising the minimum wage, strengthening labor standards, and boosting public investments in infrastructure and education, financed through progressive taxes. The results could not be more clear: workers and families in Minnesota have done far better over the past seven years than their counterparts in Wisconsin.”
Wisconsin Gazette | May 9, 2018
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds Minnesota’s economy improved more than Wisconsin’s between 2010 and 2017, based on a number of economic measures. The median household income in Minnesota grew 7.2 percent between 2010 and 2016, while Wisconsin’s grew by 5.1 percent over the same period. Median family income followed a similar trend, growing 8.5 percent in Minnesota and 6.4 percent in Wisconsin. Job growth has also lagged in Wisconsin compared to its western neighbor, the report shows. In Minnesota, job growth since the end of 2010 was 11 percent in total nonfarm employment, compared to 7.9 percent growth in Wisconsin. (whole story)
WisBusiness.com | May 9, 2018
Urban Milwaukee | May 9, 2018
Some ground their support for higher teacher pay in education policy. They argue you’ll get the quality of teachers you pay for, and teacher pay lags behind other white-collar professionals. The Economic Policy Institute found that teachers’ weekly wages are 23 percent lower than those of other college graduates. If a teacher can’t earn enough to pay off their student loans, they’ll probably think twice before becoming an educator.
The American Prospect | May 9, 2018
Texas Public Radio | May 9, 2018
President Trump’s administration announced plans in March to hike tariffs on U.S. imports of steel and aluminium to combat what it said was unfair trade practices from China. Many economists have criticized the move, but others say tariffs could be an effective tool for addressing long-simmering problems in the global economy. Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson speaks with Robert Scott (@robscott_epi), senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, who says tariffs are long overdue — as long as they’re part of a larger economic strategy.
WBUR | May 8, 2018
The international provisions in the new U.S. tax law fail to live up to Republicans’ promises that the legislation will boost domestic investment and manufacturing, according to a panel of experts speaking Monday at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Contrary to the GOP’s messages around the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, P.L. 115-97, academics who have analyzed the new legislation say lawmakers’ deliberate policy choices actually make the U.S. a less desirable place to invest while encouraging multinational companies to shift… (paywall, appears to be whole story)
Law 360 | May 8, 2018
—Report: “State attorneys general can play key roles in protecting workers’ rights,” from the Economic Policy Institute
Politico Pro | May 8, 2018
“Uber and Lyft are kind of the poster children to some extent for this debate,” says Celine McNicholas at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “We become more aware of these issues, and it’s wonderful to have these decisions shine a light on the reality of what folks delivering our FedEx packages and driving us to and from friends’ houses are experiencing. “It’s about giving thought to the economy we’re supporting,” she adds.
The Christian Science Monitor | May 7, 2018
The price tag would jump in recessions as laid-off people flock to the program. That is a feature, not a bug: By automatically injecting public money into the economy, it would prop up spending, private employment and tax revenue, lessening the recession’s severity. And unlike universal basic income, another fashionable idea for reducing inequality in which everyone gets a check regardless of whether they work, a jobs guarantee gets the taxpayer something in return: workers. That, however, is also the problem. Here’s why. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 39% of the workforce, some 54 million people, now earn $15 an hour or less. All would have an incentive to quit and join the federal program. Of course, most wouldn’t because their employers would, grudgingly, raise pay to keep them, then pass the cost on to customers, a de facto inflation tax. Indeed, advocates say the job guarantee accomplishes the same thing as a $15 minimum wage without the job loss.
The Wall Street Journal | May 3, 2018
In the United States, too, many of Chomsky’s worries have become reality. Rob Scott, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), estimates that between 1993 and 2010, 682,900 U.S. jobs have disappeared due to trade with Mexico. An additional 3.4 million jobs—75 percent in manufacturing—were lost due to trade with China between 2001 and 2015. “Trade is the single most important cause of manufacturing job loss,” Scott says. “It is an urban myth that it is caused by improvements in technology. “The growth of trade, particularly imports from low-wage countries, explains 90 percent of the suppression of wages of non-college educated workers since 1995.” (Rob and EPI quoted throughout)
In These Times | May 3, 2018
More than 60 million employees in the U.S. have signed mandatory arbitration agreements. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, one-third of these affected workers have also signed class action waivers—meaning that not only can they not bring a suit against their employers on their own behalf, they also may not join a class action as part of an aggrieved group. More common in low-wage workplaces, mandatory arbitration clauses and class action waivers have a disproportionately adverse impact on women and minority employees. … If the Court sides broadly with employers in NLRB v. Murphy Oil, the Economic Policy Institute’s Alexander J.S. Colvin warns, “this will signal to businesses that the last potential barrier to their ability to opt out of class actions has been removed.”
City Lab | May 2, 2018
Germany, therefore, has effectively found a way to lower the value of its currency. The result is that “Germany is exporting unemployment to the rest of Europe,” said Robert Scott, senior economist and director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post | April 30, 2018
“I don’t think that jobs in the public sector that produce valuable investments should ebb and swell in the way that would be necessary for them to be part of a ‘job guarantee,'” wrote Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, in arguing that a large investment in public sector jobs would be better than an outright jobs guarantee.
The Washington Post | April 30, 2018
A recent paper from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute points out that people often switch jobs in low-wage industries, so even a 3% loss in jobs could just mean that all workers end up with 3% fewer total hours — but if they were paid 10% more for those hours, everybody comes out ahead. … “Employers have the power to set wages,” says Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “And when it’s not completely determined by perfect competition, they are going to set wages too low, and they will always complain that they can’t find enough workers at the going wage.”
CNN Money | April 30, 2018
U.S. gross domestic product grew 2.3 percent in the first quarter of 2018, the government reported today, well below the White House’s target of 3 percent. GDP fell from 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 but nonetheless exceeded economists‘ expectations. A Bloomberg panel of economists had predicted 2 percent growth. The numbers signal the economy hasn’t been hurt by President Donald Trump‘s tariffs or fluctuations on Wall Street, but has yet to be helped significantly by the passage of the GOP tax bill late last year. The drop-off was largely attributed to a slowdown in consumer spending growth, which fell to 1.1 percent — the lowest since 2013. Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist of Northern Trust, told the New York Times that the overall GDP growth is “moderately encouraging,” but warned the immediate effects of the tax bill would fade down the road. Left-leaning economists cited the slowed growth as evidence that the tax cuts aren‘t working. “The evidence from past tax cuts strongly suggested there would be little-to-no economic payoff in this form,” the Economic Policy Institute said in a written statement. “Today’s GDP data largely confirms this.“
Politico Pro | April 30, 2018
The 2.3 percent increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) over the first three months of 2018 marked the second consecutive quarterly decline and proves President Donald Trump’s tax cuts are a failure, critics charged. “The evidence from past tax cuts strongly suggested there would be little to no economic payoff in this form,” wrote Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. “Today’s GDP data largely confirms this.”
Lifezette | April 30, 2018
According to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, 67 percent of private employers within California have forced arbitration. While the practice is mainly associated with large corporations, nearly 50 percent of employers with fewer than 100 employees also have mandatory arbitration policies.
San Francisco Business Times | April 30, 2018
Unfortunately, Democrats do not yet have a proposal that can bring these aspirations to life. One problem to work through is the traditional Democratic question of how to finance their new program. (Republican policy ideas never have this issue —they just put everything on the credit card and stick the next president with the bill.) It’s quite a large expenditure, perhaps half a trillion dollars a year, depending on the exact contours. Progressives have circulated polling showing support for a job guarantee financed by a 5 percent income tax hike on earnings over $200,000 a year, but Josh Bivens at the liberal Economic Policy Institute notes that that would cover less than a fifth of the cost.
New York Magazine | April 26, 2018
Public school teachers across Arizona plan to walk out of their classrooms Thursday to demand higher wages and better funding for schools. The latest economic research suggests teachers have valid reasons to feel left behind. Arizona teachers make just 63 cents on the dollar compared to other workers with college degrees. That’s the largest gap in the nation, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, where Lawrence Mishel is a labor market economist. “Teachers’ wages have really lagged behind that of other workers with similar amounts of experience and education,” says Mishel, “and we find that to be true even when we include the fact that teachers get better benefits.” (whole story)
Public News Service | April 26, 2018
Nationally, teachers today are paid on average $60,483 annually—17 percent lower than America’s typical college graduates, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Education Association. And teachers have lost ground in recent years, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that focuses on lower- and middle-income workers. Its analysis found that while college graduates’ average weekly pay rose by $124 between 1996 and 2015, teachers’ pay declined by $30 over that time when adjusted for inflation.
Education Week | April 26, 2018
But there are additional reasons why officials might scrutinize the company more than others. “They do set the standard in a lot of places,” says David Cooper of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “If Walmart is raising pay, every other employer in the rural area where Walmart dominates is also going to have to respond. It does have outsize significance in that respect.”
Governing | April 26, 2018
“Every country wants to have its own steel industry,” she explained. “What’s different is that China is completely off the charts” in terms of subsidies, from tax breaks, to cheap land, to below-market electricity to low-interest generous loans from state-owned (government-owned banks). Economic Policy Institute trade specialist Robert Scott added the biggest subsidy is currency manipulation. Tariffs do little against those myriad subsidies, and Scott noted Trump’s Treasury Department, three days before, issued a congressionally mandated report about currency manipulators – and didn’t name China. He also said while China may be the biggest steel dumper, it’s not the only one. Korea and Japan are in the game, too. Still, when the U.S. let China into the World Trade Organization in 2000 – over labor’s strong objections and lobbying – China was producing 100 million tons of steel a year. Now, it’s 1.6 billion tons “and Korea and Japan are willing to take those dumped, subs-idized products” – China’s steel – “and ship them in manufactured products, like cars, to us.”
Press Associates Union News Service | April 26, 2018
The distinction is not merely an issue of semantics, but one of rights, better wages, and improved working conditions. According to a January 2018 report by the Economic Policy Institute, graduate teaching assistants have taken on heavier workloads, have more responsibility when it comes to teaching and grading, and assume much of the research that ends up winning the universities grants and prestige. “And yet the pay they receive rarely rises to the level of a living wage,” the report stated. The EPI report found that between 2005 and 2015, the rise in graduate assistant and non-tenure-track faculty jobs surpassed that of tenured and tenure-track jobs, with the former currently making up approximately 73 percent of the academic workforce. “The simple explanation for this increasing reliance on graduate and non-tenure-track faculty is that they are far less costly to employ,” the report reads.
Think Progress | April 25, 2018
Even before the SEC passed this new law, the fact of CEOs’ staggering paychecks (and payouts) has been well known (and much maligned) for quite some time. Last year, an Economic Policy Institute study found that the pay gap between CEOs and their employees has grown six times as large as it was three decades ago and that today CEOs make about 271 times more than their employees. While the EPI noted that the CEO-worker pay gap peaked in 2000, when CEOs made 376 times more than the average employee, the ratio wasn’t always this alarming. In 1964, for example, CEOs made 20 times more than an average employee, and in 1989, they made 59 times as much. (EPI cited throughout)
Racked | April 25, 2018
A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, found that mandatory arbitration is most common in low-wage workplaces and in industries with a high number of women workers. EPI found that last year 56 percent of private-sector nonunion workers in the U.S. — about 60 million people — were subject to mandatory arbitration in employment contracts. The agreements bar access to the courts for all types of legal claims, including those based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act. “The practice is especially widespread in California,” said EPI attorney Marni von Wilpert. “This means that, when a worker is paid less than she is owed, is fired for being pregnant, or is underpaid because of her race, she cannot have her claim heard in a court of law. Instead, she is locked into a private arbitration process that favors the employer.” “Arbitration is a highly effective dispute resolution method when both parties chose it freely,” she said. “It is far less successful when the more powerful party forces the other to accept the terms.
The Orange County Register | April 24, 2018