Media clips

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• Eating healthy as inflation rises and wages stagnate

  As a way of looking at how wage stagnation is impacting consumers, KHON2.com took a look at the Economic Policy Institute‘s data on wages since 1948.

  According to the EPI, workers’ wages between 1948 and 1973 rose 91.3% as worker productivity increased by 96.7% through those years. However, since 1974, workers’ wages only increased 108.9% while worker productivity has increased by 243.1%.

  KHON2 Hawaii November 2, 2023
• Can Des Moines workers expect raises in 2024? Here’s what an annual salary guide says

  A study released the last week of October by the Economic Policy Institute noted that while the Midwest enjoys the lowest unemployment rate in the country, its wages have lagged behind those in other regions of the country.

  The EPI study found the Midwest’s real median wage growth rising only 0.4% from 2019 to 2022, far below the 3.1% national average during the same period. Wage growth over that period was 5.7% in the Northeast and 4.7% in the West, with the South coming in at 0.9%.

  Des Moines Register November 2, 2023
• Is a ‘Mayday!’ Now Looming for Our Billionaire Class?

  Workers in major American industries haven’t seen gains that stunning since the middle of the 20th century, a time when the chief execs of America’s largest corporations averaged only just over 20 times the compensation of their workers. That gap today, the Economic Policy Institute calculates, is now running nearly 350 times.

  Inequality.org November 2, 2023
• Proposed rollback of child labor law in FL gets pushback; critics say kids would be exploited

  In fact, Florida is the 13th state this year to introduce legislation that would roll back labor laws intended to protect minors, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

  The organization says that the bill “proposes rolling back long-standing state standards adopted more than a century ago in response to widespread exploitation of children” and contends it will “harm Florida’s poorest youth and their families.”

  Florida Phoenix October 30, 2023
• Publix accused of employee wage theft in federal class-action lawsuit. What to know

  Every year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, American workers lose as much as $50 billion per year to wage theft. Our clients have experienced something many workers face as we all become reachable on our phones at any time of day or night — that companies expect employees to be in constant communication but fail to track this time worked. It’s unacceptable to force hourly workers to work outside of their shifts and to not pay workers for their time.

  Miami Herald October 30, 2023
• It looks like striking auto workers forced Ford’s bosses into a record 25% pay increase

  Paywall. 

  Business Insider October 30, 2023
• Morris Pearl Says Americans Shouldn’t Be Worried About the National Debt. Here’s Why.

  The lack of complaining from the GOP in 2017 when Trump passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) serves as a key example. This bill, according to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, provided significant benefits to wealthy Americans and corporations. However, it did little to help working families.

  Business Insider October 30, 2023
• The Midwest is getting left behind as the rest of America sees big raises

  Compared to the rest of the US, the Midwest is lagging in terms of real median wage growth, rising just 0.4% — or eight cents — from 2019 to 2022, new research from the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute shows. This is in contrast to the nation’s 3.1% median wage growth during the same period.

  Workers in the Northeast saw a median wage growth increase of 5.7% during the three-year period, while the West rose 4.7%. The South was a bit above the Midwest at 0.9%.

  …

  Though federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and the CARES Act helped many Midwesterners stay afloat, the Midwest “has endured years of slow wage growth, slow job growth, public-sector employment shortfalls, and declines in unionization,” the report notes.

  “That decline was ushered in by a period of austerity — disinvestment in the public sector, as well as in public-sector employment — trade policies that incentivized offshoring, and a host of anti-worker policies that have limited the collective bargaining power of workers and the ability of unions to secure higher wages for their members, and in turn, all workers in the region,” Nina Mast, one of the study’s coauthors, told Insider.

  Business Insider October 30, 2023
• Amid Discouraging New Inequality Stats, Some Encouraging Rays of Hope

  Back in 1965, the Economic Policy Institute detailed last month, chief execs at America’s major corporations took home 21 times as much as America’s most typical workers. CEOs last year averaged 344 times typical worker pay.

  Inequality.org October 20, 2023
• Michigan’s $15 minimum wage proposal will be on 2024 ballot: What to know

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, minimum wage is indexed in 18 states and in Washington, D.C., meaning it is “automatically adjusted each year for increases in prices.” Economic analyst David Cooper says that by indexing minimum wage, the hourly salary never loses its value — and it’s written into law that the wage will rise by a certain amount depending on a specific formula, so politicians are not arbitrarily deciding the number.

  Click on Detroit October 20, 2023