While the district and DCTA argue over the amount of the raise, both agree that teachers need one. Teacher pay continues to lag behind the pay of other college-educated workers, according to a 2016 report published by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “In 2015, public school teachers’ weekly wages were 17 percent lower than those of comparable workers—compared with just 1.8 percent lower in 1994,” the report states. Expect to see more strikes, particularly in cities like Denver, where a tech boom has increased the cost of living for all workers.
The Brookings Institution | March 22, 2019
Until the mid-1990s, teachers were paid almost as much as other educated workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of Labor Department data. As of 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, they were paid an average of 18.7 percent less. Their 7.6 percent advantage in benefits does not close the gap.
Washington Post | March 22, 2019
In January, Democrats introduced the 2019 Raise the Wage Act, a bill that would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024, up from the current federal minimum of $7.25, set in 2009. New research from the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute found that the bill could help black workers more than white.
Newsweek | March 20, 2019
Eight states do not have a lower minimum wage for tipped workers. New Mexico’s rate, $2.13, is the federal minimum, used by 17 states, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Santa Fe New Mexican | March 20, 2019
Until the mid-1990s, teachers were paid almost as much as other educated workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of Labor Department data. As of 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, they were paid an average of 18.7 percent less. Their 7.6 percent advantage in benefits does not close the gap.
Washington Post | March 20, 2019
While the district and DCTA argue over the amount of the raise, both agree that teachers need one. Teacher pay continues to lag behind the pay of other college-educated workers, according to a 2016 report published by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “In 2015, public school teachers’ weekly wages were 17 percent lower than those of comparable workers—compared with just 1.8 percent lower in 1994,” the report states. Expect to see more strikes, particularly in cities like Denver, where a tech boom has increased the cost of living for all workers.
The Brookings Institution | March 20, 2019
According to the Denver Post, an agreement over base pay has been concluded, with a miserly increase of $2,545 a year or just over $200 a month, before taxes. A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute says that $92,426 per year is needed to support a family of four in Denver, one of America’s most expensive cities, whereas teachers’ starting pay will only be $45,800.
World Socialist Web Site | March 20, 2019
The Hill | March 20, 2019
Nine Texas cities are among the nation’s 50 top markets for buying Airbnb investment property. Yet the Economic Policy Institute cautions against looking at Airbnb’s potential for moneymaking without a healthy dose of skepticism.
Dallas News | March 20, 2019
Honestly, though, it’s not surprising. Missouri Republicans have had supermajorities in the state House and Senate for as long as I can remember. They’re used to marching to the beat of their own drum—even when that drum is out of step with the rest of Missouri. Earlier in the 2018 election cycle, Missouri voted on Proposition A: whether or not we should enact Right to Work. Right to Work is a usually Republican-led law that looks to strip power from labor unions. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Right to Work states tend to have lower wages and less rights for workers.
The University News | March 20, 2019
The Board of Directors of the National Academy of Social Insurance has approved the election of 45 distinguished social insurance experts to the Academy, adding to the total active Membership of over 1,100. (A complete list of individuals newly-elected to the Academy can be found below.)
National Academy of Social Insurance | March 20, 2019
Washington, D.C. – During today’s U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology hearing on the T-Mobile/Sprint merger, witnesses raising concerns about the proposed merger offered detailed and extensive documentation and analysis, while merger supporters relied on vague and unsubstantiated claims.
Public | March 20, 2019
The economist Milton Friedman got it wrong when he said a firm’s business is to maximize profits, Jones said. A firm that focuses on profits above all else “is not sustainable.” Consider the growing level of income inequality and all the social distortions that come with it—populism, disgruntled low-skilled workers, displacement. According to the Economic Policy Institute, American workers saw pay gains since 1978 of 11 percent, adjusted for inflation. CEOs? 937 percent increase, a 70 percent faster pace than the stock market.
Wealth Management | March 20, 2019
Just as one teachers’ strike ended in Los Angeles another continues in Denver. Many teachers report being happy with their jobs but are unable to make ends meet, which is why salaries are the primary bone of contention in these strikes. Teachers have a strong case to make that they need and deserve more pay, given the discrepant pay between teaching and comparable professions: Teachers earned 4.3 percent less than workers with similar education and experience in 1996, a gap that grew to 17 percent in 2015, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Hill | March 20, 2019
In 1982, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the average CEO earned 50 times the average production worker. Today, the CEO Pay Ratio’s increased to 144 times the average worker with most of the gains a result of stock options and awards.
Nasdaq | March 20, 2019
“I think we’re at a tipping point,” says Thea Lee, who leads the lefty Economic Policy Institute, which is skeptical of free trade agreements. “You could see Democrats retreat to their comfort blanket. My hope is we can convince people that’s not an option. We’re not going to go back to the status quo ante. What we need to do is have a forward-looking vision.”
VOX | March 20, 2019
In all, nearly 2 million low-wage workers in both states will get a raise in 2019, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
VOX | March 20, 2019
The Raise the Wage Act of 2019 would increase wages for 38 percent of all African-American workers, and 23 percent of white workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute report. Wade Luneburg, political director with hospitality union Unite Here, said no Minnesotan who works full time should have to live in poverty.
Public News Service | March 20, 2019
Let’s talk about what that $15 minimum wage bill would do, though, because Republicans should have to face consequences for their actions, and working people should know what Republicans are doing to them. Here’s the bottom line, from the Economic Policy Institute: “All told, raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would directly or indirectly lift wages for 39.7 million workers, 26.6 percent of the wage-earning workforce.” The average worker who would be directly affected—that is, who would get a raise because they earned less than the new minimum wage—would get an extra $4,000 in pay if they work all year.
Daily Kos | March 20, 2019
“It’s astronomical what people need just to make it month to month,” said Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist at the Department of Labor who and now with the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank, to The Washington Post in December. “Given the high cost of transportation, housing, health care … There is often no wiggle room.”
New York Daily News | March 20, 2019
We learn much more at the state level. Amazon has played one state against another for tax breaks over the years, most recently negotiating an estimated $3 billion tax credit from the state of New York before residents rebelled—as well they should have. The Economic Policy Institute found that employment levels don’t significantly change in communities with new Amazon warehouses, and a recent study by The Economist concluded that the opening of a fulfillment center in a given community actually depresses warehouse wages. Furthermore, as an indication of the folly of wooing corporations with state subsidies, Upjohn research found that in the great majority of cases incentives are not even a part of a company’s decision to locate in a given area.
Truthdig | March 20, 2019
A study by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit focused on the needs of low- and middle-income workers, found that “Amazon fulfillment centers do not boost overall employment in the counties where they open—undermining the case for providing large tax breaks and incentives to lure Amazon facilities to a particular place.”
Deadline Detroit | March 20, 2019
“One reason why we don’t just allow, we have zoning and why some places are zoned for residential areas and some are zoned for hotels and some for businesses it’s the idea that you know sometimes you don’t want to live around businesses and around a bunch of tourists and if Airbnb just comes in and just sort of ignores those zoning distinctions and says nope, if you’re in town in New Orleans for Mardi Gras you don’t have to stay at a hotel, just go stay in a residential neighborhood, that’s maybe not great for the neighbors or the long term residents there,” said Josh Bivens with the Economic Policy Institute.
WKRN | March 20, 2019
Even progressive economists worry about the size of these estimates. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research points out that the federal government workforce, excluding the postal service, is but 2.2 million workers. Economist Josh Bivens, from the Economic Policy Institute, calculates that 10.7 million people is about three times the number of K-12 public school teachers in the United States.
Dollars and Sense | March 20, 2019
Statistics certainly suggest that there’s an underemployment crisis among young people in the United States: The Economic Policy Institute put that rate among recent college graduates at 12.6 percent. Some researchers have suggested that recreational computer use — including increasingly life-consuming video games — accounts for somewhere between 23 and 46 percent of the decrease in young men’s participation in the labor force. (Others regard that finding with skepticism.) One could convincingly argue that NEETdom is a logical response to the fact that the average college graduate in 2016 came out of school about $37,172 in debt — something that may be impossible to pay off with menial labor at, say, a local fast-food place. If you’re slated for a life of crippling debt, and you can get all of your social needs met online, then why even bother working? For his part, Luca thinks: “I refuse to work for $8 at Taco Bell and be another’s lackey when I am my own god.”
The Intelligencer | March 20, 2019
The average cost of infant care in Warren’s home state of Massachusetts is $17,062 for a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That’s nearly 20 percent of a typical family’s income and is second only to Washington D.C. The EPI says a family with an infant and 4-year-old could see costs of nearly $30,000 a year – far greater than rent in most cases.
Beacon Hill Patch | March 20, 2019
In 2017, among those 25 and older, only 19.8 percent of Latino men compared to 43.2 percent of white men had at least an associate degree. Not surprisingly, the average hourly wage of Latino men was 32.5 percent below white men’s wage rate. Economic Policy Institute researchers Maria Mora and Alberto Davila reported that including adjustments for differences in educational attainment and age, the wage gap declined to 14.9 percent. This remaining gap is virtually eliminated if we then adjust for lower Latino academic test scores that are linked to weaker schools attended and low-earning occupations entered.
Gotham Gazette | March 20, 2019
Along with her position at Georgetown, Kennedy Townsend is the director of retirement security at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington, D.C., think tank. Kennedy Townsend was the Democratic nominee for governor in Maryland in 2002, narrowly losing the election to Republican Robert Ehrlich.
Observer Reporter | March 20, 2019
The issue driving income inequality in the U.S. has not been a lack of productivity by American workers, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds. Instead it is that the lion’s share of gains from increased productivity have gone to a tiny segment of wage earners at the top.
Axios | March 20, 2019