Media clips

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• Amnesty For Immigrants Spurs Greater Employment in U.S.

  Wages overall continued to rise, according to a 2012 study by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, even as the nation entered a recession that lasted from July 1990 to March 1991.

   

  Bloomberg March 7, 2013
• Workers don’t share in companies’ productivity gains

  Productivity, which measures the goods and services generated per hour worked, rose by 80.4% between 1973 and 2011, compared to a 10.7% growth in median hourly compensation, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which crunched the numbers last year.

  That’s a marked shift from the trend between 1948 and 1973, when productivity and compensation grew in tandem.

  The main reason for the wider gap is a dampening of wage growth in recent decades, both among the college-educated and those without degrees, said Lawrence Mishel, the institute’s president. Global competition and national deregulation have kept compensation down, while the decline of union power weakened workers’ ability to bargain for higher pay.

  The split has been particularly acute since the beginning of the 2000s, when wage growth flattened. And now, with unemployment hovering around 8%, workers feel lucky to have a job and aren’t pressing as much for raises.

   

  CNNMoney March 7, 2013
• This viral video is right: We need to worry about wealth inequality

  When we talk about economic inequality, we tend to talk about income inequality. But wealth inequality is much more skewed, as these numbers from the Economic Policy Institute show:

  

  The top 1 percent has about twice as large a share of the national wealth as it does of national income.

  The Washington Post March 7, 2013
• H-1B Workers Not Best Or Brightest, Study Says

  Managers of high-tech companies insist they need more H-1B visas for foreign IT workers to ensure access to the best and brightest workforce. But a study released on Thursday finds that imported IT talent is often less talented than U.S. workers.

  The study, published by the Economic Policy Institute and conducted by Norman Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of California in Davis, compares U.S. and foreign IT workers’ salaries, rates of PhD awards, doctorates earned and employment in research and development to determine whether those admitted to the U.S. under the H-1B visa program have skills beyond those of U.S. IT workers.

  Based on Matloff’s analysis, there’s no evidence that those granted H-1B visas offer exceptional talents.

  Information Week March 5, 2013
• Employer credit checks keep jobless out of workforce

  Demos said this can be partly attributed to higher unemployment in these communities. Unemployment among African-Americans stood at 14% at the end of 2012, while the Hispanic unemployment rate stood at nearly 10% — much higher than the 6% rate for white Americans, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  CNNMoney.com March 5, 2013
• America is more productive, but only the rich reap the rewards

  The vast distance between corporate profits and declining working class fortunes may look especially pronounced now, but it’s not a deviation from longstanding trends. According to an April 2012 study from the Economic Policy Institute, hourly worker compensation stopped rising with productivity gains right around the mid-1970s. Since then, wages have stagnated even as economic productivity  has continued a steady, multi-decade climb. Had the federal minimum wage kept up with productivity since the 1960s, it would be $21.72 per hour instead of just $7.25.

  MSNBC.com March 5, 2013
• US Child Poverty Rates Are High; Blame Large Population, Government Mistrust, And Fear Of More Entitlements; The United Kingdom May Have Answers

  The Economic Policy Institute reported the overall relative poverty rate of the U.S. was above 17 percent, the highest among developed nations in the late 2000s. But other countries with comparable rates still had a considerably lower percentage of children in that category.

  International Business Times March 4, 2013
• Minimal Wages, Minimal Families

  As Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute points out, the median worker’s real hourly compensation (real earnings plus benefits) has stagnated over the last 10 years, and the declining real value of the minimum wage has contributed to increased income inequality.

  The New York Times March 4, 2013
• Should we give visas to immigrants who create startups?

  But critics of existing work visa programs believe that such job-creation estimates are overblown and worry that prospective immigrants would end up gaming Moran’s proposed program. “It’s less of an incentive to start business than find a way to get a green card,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice-president of the Economic Policy Institute. He believes that the assumption that all 75,000 visas will always be filled is “unreasonable,” with concerns that enforcement of the program’s requirements will be lax and that the definition of “full-time employees” hired by these immigrants’ companies will be vague and watered down.

  That said, Eisenbrey acknowledged that, at least in theory, the basic idea of creating more opportunities for immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States is a good one. “It should be done as a sort of pilot program, and we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

  The Washington Post March 4, 2013
• Spending Cuts Signal Austere Future for Domestic Programs

  The result means less money for infrastructure, education, and defense. Deficit reduction has kept the economy below its capacity for several years, said Andrew Fieldhouse, federal budget policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, which favors helping low- and middle-income workers.

  “Timing is everything,” Fieldhouse said. “And if you cut back now, you’re actually going to make it harder to address your long-term challenges because austerity in a depressed economy is particularly damaging.”

  Bloomberg March 1, 2013