The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, calls this difference the “teacher pay penalty.” EPI calculated that, in 2022, teachers earned only 74 cents on the dollar compared with comparably educated professionals. The right-leaning Hoover Institution reached a similar conclusion in its 2020 report on educator compensation, showing that, even adjusting for factors such as talent and experience, “teachers are paid 22 percent less than they would be if they were in jobs in the U.S. economy outside of teaching.”
The Washington Post
February 23, 2024
A 2022 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that average weekly wagers for teachers have remained “relatively flat” since 1996, with teachers making more than 14% less in Ohio when compared with other college-educated workers.
The 74
February 23, 2024
Nebraska’s unemployment rate ranks among the nation’s lowest, with the statewide rate at 2.3% for the last three months of 2023. But estimates from the Economic Policy Institute show unemployment among Black workers in Nebraska at 3.5% during the same period and Latino unemployment at 3%.
Omaha World-Herald
February 23, 2024
Generally, employers can get away with paying lower wages in states without strong unions: According to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank focused on low- and middle-income workers, unionization rates in Michigan declined faster than unionization rates nationally after that state passed right-to-work laws in 2012; wages, which had been higher than the national median, fell below it. (That legislation was repealed in 2023, making Michigan the first state in more than half a century to repeal its right-to-work-law.)
Cost of Living Project
February 23, 2024
Reprint of Daniel Costa and Heidi Shierholz blog, “Immigrants are not hurting U.S.-born workers.”
In These Times
February 23, 2024
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows Georgia joins nearly three dozen other states where childcare is now more expensive than some college tuitions. According to their numbers, parents in the peach state spend an average of $8,530 dollars a year on childcare per child. That comes out to more than $700 per month. The Economic Policy Institute says it now costs $1,324 a year more for daycare in Georgia than the average in-state tuition for a four-year public college.
13 WMAZ
February 23, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator measured the income a family needs to have a “modest yet adequate” standard of living. According to its measurements, to achieve that in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, you need to make an annual total of $112,609.
Bucks County Today
February 23, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the number of bus drivers in the country is down 15% from 2019.
KWQC
February 23, 2024
Support has grown across the United States recently for legislation banning race-based discrimination on hair, specifically textures or styles associated with a particular race or national origin. Texas is one of 24 states to have passed a law banning such discrimination, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Texas passed its law in May 2023.
Reuters
February 23, 2024