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A worker on minimum wage earns $15,080 a year, far below the federal poverty threshold of $19,090 for a family of three. It’s true that the low-wage workforce includes teenagers and people who live in households with other income earners. But a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute found that fewer than one-third of low-wage earners live in households with incomes over $50,000.
Kansas City Star September 4, 2012 -
The winners instead have been the nation’s top 1 percent, who between 1979 and 2007 saw their annual earnings grow 156 percent, according to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute. In 1980, compensation for chief executives at some of the nation’s largest companies was 42 times the pay of the average worker; now it’s more than 300 times.
Tampa Bay Times September 4, 2012 -
A recent study from the Economic Policy Institute found that more than a quarter of Americans — 28 percent — would work in low-wage jobs for the next decade. Those jobs pay less than $11.06 an hour, the necessary wage to reach the federal poverty level. Low-wage sectors, EPI found, are growing faster than the overall economy.
Think Progress September 4, 2012 -
From the point of view of an economist at a think tank that examines the trends and policies of working people in the U.S., the reasons are simple: “Wealth is in their housing and what they get paid,” explained Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute.
“They don’t have a lot of dividends,” he continued. “Their wealth is … not in financial assets.”
National Journal September 4, 2012 -
The decline of union membership has been a key driver of income inequality in recent decades, a new report found.
The drop in unionization accounts for roughly a third of the growth in wage inequality among men and a fifth among women between 1973 and 2007, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The share of the workforce represented by unions declined from 26.7% in 1973 to 13.1% in 2011. This contributed to the increase in inequality by lowering wages for middle class workers, according to EPI.
CNNMoney August 31, 2012 -
Declining unionization is responsible for about one-third of the growth of wage inequality among men from 1973 to 2007, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The wage gap between white- and blue-collar workers grew some 10 percentage points from 1978 to 2011, while the gap between college and high school graduates increased 24 percentage points.
Nationally, the share of the work force represented by unions declined from 26.7 percent in 1973 to 13.1 percent in 2011.
“Unions reduce wage inequalities because they raise wages more at the bottom and in the middle of the wage scale than at the top,” Lawrence Mishel, president of the institute, said in a statement. “It is unsurprising that efforts to weaken unions have exacerbated both wage inequality and the divergence between overall productivity and the compensation of the typical worker.”
Maryland Gazette August 31, 2012 -
Real wages have stagnated over the last decade partly because of dwindling collective bargaining power, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute.
In his research for the institute’s “State of Working America” report, which will be published Sept. 11, Lawrence Mishel said “deunionization” also can explain some of the growing wage gap between the nation’s highest paid workers and everyone else.
About 13.1 percent of the U.S. workforce was represented by unions last year. The share has decreased steadily since the late 1970s.
“The decline of unions has affected middle-wage men more than any other group and explains about three-fourths of the expanded wage gap between white- and blue-collar men and over a fifth of the expanded wage gap between high school and college-educated men from 1978 to 2011,” Mishel wrote.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/29/3785314/decline-in-unions-weakened-overall.html#storylink=cpyKansas City Star August 31, 2012 -
Nearly one-third of the increase in wage inequality among men over the last four decades is attributable to the declining unionization of the American workforce, a new study from the Economic Policy Institute found. Declining unionization is responsible for roughly one-fifth of the growth in wage inequality among women over the same time period (from 1973 to 2007), according to the report. In 1973, 26.7 percent of American workers were in a union; by 2011, that number had fallen to 13.1 percent. The study also found that declining unionization was responsible for 76 percent of the increase in wage inequality between white- and blue-collar workers.
Think Progress August 31, 2012 -
Imports to the U.S. from China have risen dramatically in the past 10 years. According to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute, that increase contributed heavily to job losses in Wisconsin, but the trend may be slowing.
Between 2001 and 2010, Wisconsin lost more than 54,000 manufacturing jobs to China. Rob Scott is the Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research for the labor-friendly Economic Policy Institute. He blames a growing trade deficit with China for many of the manufacturing industry’s economic woes.
Wisconsin Public Radio August 29, 2012 -
Men and women who have completed college face a dilemma, according to Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. Yes, they’re faring better in the current economy than others. But they still might lag behind another key comparison point: themselves.
According to Mishel’s data, college graduates have lost income during the past decade. From 2000 to 2011, for instance, median weekly earnings fell by 1.2 percent among people who earned a college degree. From 2007 to 2011 alone, it dropped 1.1 percent. “I don’t think they’re necessarily rebounding any better, from what I see,” he said. “What’s happened over the last 10 years—wages for college graduates and those with high-school degrees—neither groups has seen any improvement in their wages and benefits.”
National Journal August 28, 2012