Over the past year, my colleagues in the Biden administration have presented compelling explanations of our approach to international trade. It is an approach that is unsurprisingly rooted in Bidenomics, specifically by recognizing two simple realities that EPI saw decades before most others.
The White House
September 29, 2023
To add context to CEO salaries, the Economic Policy Institute found that in 2021, the top 350 US CEOs made 399 times more than the average American’s annual salary. This disparity marks the widest gap the institute has recorded from 1965 to 2021.
Business Insider
September 29, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute calculated in 2022 that in the last four decades, CEO to average worker pay at big U.S. corporations jumped from less than 40 to 1 to 400 to 1.
Iowa City Press Citizen
September 29, 2023
There are more than 2 million domestic workers in the United States, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research group. Laws similar to Chicago’s are on the books in San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Marketplace
September 29, 2023
Quotes Elise Gould [paywall].
Barron’s
September 29, 2023
If Dollar General is in the running for America’s worst retail job, the pay doesn’t much help. Most of its employees make less than $12 an hour, and close to 1 in 4 make less than $10, according to an Economic Policy Institute study of 2021 survey data. That puts it below Walmart, which raised its hourly minimum to $12 in 2021 and bumped it to $14 this year.
Bloomberg
September 22, 2023
Landing in the top 10% is a fairly attainable goal for upwardly mobile Americans. A 2022 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that the average earnings of those in the top 10% were roughly $167,629 in 2021.
MoneyWise
September 22, 2023
The J-1, according to the Economic Policy Institute, has a history of being used by employers to exploit cheap labor.
The Messenger
September 22, 2023
A 2020 study by the Economic Policy Institute found more than 70% of federal labor standards investigations of farms detect violations, ranging from wage theft to inadequate housing and other infractions.
But with one wage and hour investigator for every 175,000 workers, the federal labor department likely misses a wide swath of violations, the study found.
Greeley Tribune
September 22, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, there have been at least 12 bills filed in 10 separate states over the past two years aimed at loosening child labor laws.
Action News Jax
September 22, 2023
A letter sent Wednesday to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from David Michaels, who led the agency under President Obama, argues that “the agency’s grant of authority from Congress includes the power to protect workers’ mental health from workplace hazards.”
- Co-signers of the letter, which was provided exclusively to Axios, include the National Education Association and the Service Employees International Union. The left-leaning Governing for Impact and the Economic Policy Institute are also among the signers.
Axios
September 22, 2023
The ratio of CEO pay to the average, non-supervisory production worker at the biggest U.S. companies has jumped from less than 40 to 1 over the last four decades to nearly 400 to 1, the Economic Policy Institute calculated in 2022.
Reuters
September 22, 2023
Since 1978, the CEO compensation among America’s 300 biggest companies has gone up 1,460%, while the typical worker’s pay grew by just 18% (both adjusted for inflation), according to the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
CNN Business
September 22, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute, adjusted for inflation, wages for autoworkers in the U.S. have fallen 19% since 2008.
Tech Crunch
September 22, 2023
One 2022 report by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, found that industries with high numbers of H-2B workers accounted for nearly $1.8 billion in wage violations over the previous two decades.
HR Dive
September 22, 2023
However, despite the growing number of strikes, there are still 70% fewer strikes now in the U.S. compared to the early 1970s, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Entrepreneur
September 22, 2023
The United Auto Workers strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis is now on its fourth day and it looks like labor actions are ramping up. Unifor, the union that represents autoworkers in Canada, is preparing to also go on strike against Ford starting at midnight. A major issue for striking workers, whether it’s in the auto or entertainment industry: how much top execs are getting paid. Adjusting for inflation, the typical worker’s pay has grown by just 18% since the late seventies. Compare that to the CEOs for America’s top 300 largest companies. Their compensation went up by more than 1,400%. That’s according to the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
CNN 5 Things podcast
September 22, 2023
According to a 2020 Economic Policy Institute report, employers were charged with illegally firing workers in almost 20 percent of union elections.
Newsweek
September 22, 2023
Jennifer Sherer, director of the state worker power initiative for the Economic Policy Institute, said in an interview with Modern Retail that the deal creates a new model for other states to look at. The nine-member Fast Food Council will include two industry representatives, two franchisees, two employees, two employee advocates and a neutral chairperson, as well as non-voting state experts.
“It’s creating a new structure where workers from the industry themselves, along with government officials and industry representatives, are going to sit down with the data and experiences and each year have the ability to recommend new adjustments for wages,” she said.
Modern Retail
September 22, 2023
A report from the Economic Policy Institute noted that even if every penny of a $15 minimum wage was directed to price increases — rather than made up through reduced profits or improved productivity and streamlining — it would only boost prices by less than 0.5%. That is less than 100 times the rate of inflation the past two years, according to EPI.
GO Banking Rates
September 22, 2023
In another sign of resilience, the employment-population ratio among 25-54 year-olds is close to record levels, according to economist Elise Gould of think-tank the Economic Policy Institute.
At 80.9 percent, the figure is higher than it was pre-pandemic, above the level right before the Great Recession around 2008, and just slightly below the record level in 2000.
“I think that is showing a lot of strength,” she said.
AFP
September 22, 2023
An Economic Policy Institute analysis found that in the past decade, the Big Three have made $250 billion in profits, sent $66 billion of that to investors and raised CEO pay by 40%. Meanwhile, the average auto manufacturing worker is earning almost 20% less today than they did in 2008.
MSNBC.com
September 22, 2023
The lack of a COLA has contributed to US autoworkers’ average hourly earnings falling by nearly 20 percent in real terms since 2008, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Mother Jones
September 22, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute observed earlier this week that autoworker wages across the U.S. have fallen by 19.3% since 2008.
Salon
September 22, 2023
The inflation of the past three years is especially galling for autoworkers, who agreed to give up automatic cost-of-living increases in 2008 when two of the Big Three filed for bankruptcy and had to be bailed out by the federal government. Since then, workers’ inflation-adjusted income has fallen 19%, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Fortune
September 22, 2023
Profits at the Big Three firms increased by 92 percent in the last decade and CEO pay increased by 40 percent in the same period, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.
The Hill
September 22, 2023
A 2021 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor think tank, estimated that without policy intervention, meeting that goal would cost the US auto industry 75,000 jobs, since the majority of EV powertrain components are produced and assembled elsewhere.
WIRED
September 22, 2023
Samantha Sanders, the director of government affairs and advocacy at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based thinktank, suggested Republican interventions on the strike were driven by opportunism.
“I don’t know what is the decision-making on their campaigns,” she said. “All I can say is, what is your track record? What have you done for workers? Have we reason to believe they would follow on these messages of support some of them express? I have not seen anything backed up by action while they were in office.
The Guardian
September 22, 2023
The union argues that the boost in pay and benefits is warranted because of the hefty profits and executive compensation at the auto companies. From 2013 to 2022, according to the Economic Policy Institute, profits at the Big Three leapt 92%, totalling $250 billion by last year.
U.S. News & World Report
September 22, 2023
CEO pay has skyrocketed more than 1,200% since 1978, compared to a 15.3% increase in a typical worker’s compensation, according to a new report out today from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Josh Bivens, chief economist for the EPI, and Luke Schaefer, associate dean for research and policy engagement at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Policy, joined Nick Austin on Detroit Today this morning to discuss how income inequality affects our economy and society as a whole.
NPR Detroit
September 22, 2023