The PBS NewsHour’s Digital Anchor, Nicole Ellis, spoke to two economists – Diana Furchtgott-Roth, George Washington University adjunct economics professor and former chief economist at the Department of Labor, and Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute – about how they interpret the current state of America’s economy and what they’re watching.
PBS Newshour
September 2, 2022
A report by the Economic Policy Institute released this month found the teacher pay penalty – the wage gap between teachers and other professionals with similar education experience – hit a new high, reaching 23.5% in 2021.
The Guardian
September 2, 2022
That feeling of disrespect has material roots. There has long been a “pay penalty” associated with teaching, compared to professions that require similar levels of education. Adjusted for inflation, teachers’ average weekly pay has increased by just $29 since 1996, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute; by comparison, other college graduates have seen an average increase of $445 per week over the same period. Low wages and high stress have led to a resurgence of labor organizing and militancy among teachers, including upcoming strikes planned in large districts like Columbus, Ohio, and Philadelphia.
Inside Higher Ed
September 2, 2022
The socioeconomic potential these jobs would bring is significant. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the decline of manufacturing in the U.S. has had its most adverse effects on workers of all races without a college degree. From 1998 to 2020, for example, the number of Black workers in manufacturing dropped by 30.4 percent—a loss of 646,500 jobs. In total, five million manufacturing jobs were lost in that same period.
The loss of such jobs has compounding effects. Black, Hispanic, and Asian American Pacific Islanders in manufacturing earn around 14 to 18 percent more than their non-manufacturing counterparts. For white manufacturing workers, the disparity is larger: They earn 29 percent more than non-manufacturing white workers.
The American Prospect
September 2, 2022
EPI Senior Economist Elise Gould joins Yahoo Finance Live anchors Akiko Fujita and Brian Cheung to discuss inflation, the labor market, and the Fed’s dual mandate.
Yahoo Finance
August 26, 2022
“Teachers are one of the most consequential professions that there are right? Because after all, they have the future of the workforce in front of them every day,” Economic Policy Institute Research Associate Sylvia Allegretto said.
NBC 29
August 26, 2022
Cardona’s office told PolitiFact that he was referring to statistics from the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.
In a report released Aug. 16, the group found that inflation-adjusted average weekly wages of teachers had increased by just $29 between 1996 and 2021, specifically from $1,319 to $1,348 in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Politifact
August 26, 2022
The average weekly inflation-adjusted wage of public school teachers increased just $29 from 1996 to 2021, per a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
Axios
August 26, 2022
I’m far from the first person to notice Goldwein’s hypocrisy. Economist Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, tweeted back in May, citing a CRFB paper, “If student debt cancellation is not good stimulus, that means it is also not very inflationary.” She also pointed out that the current debt payment moratorium, which has been going on for two and a half years—in other words, the entire inflationary cycle—meant that “even if somebody’s debt is entirely cancelled under a new policy, their monthly costs won’t decrease relative to what they currently are. This will dramatically limit any impact on new spending and hence provide no upward inflation pressure relative to the status quo.”
American Prospect
August 26, 2022