While wealth may have risen for many Americans, the same can’t be said of their wages. Economists at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, analyzed data from the Social Security Administration and found that on average workers in the bottom 90% of wage earners (those who made less than $112,000 per year) saw no increase in their wages from 2019 to 2021 once historic levels of inflation were taken into account. These workers actually saw a decline in their real earnings of 0.2%.
PBS
March 17, 2023
The following is from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI):
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 16, 2023) — The Michigan state legislature is poised to make history this week by repealing an anti-union “right-to-work” (RTW) statute enacted in 2012. This repeal is an important step toward empowering workers to address historic levels of income inequality and unequal power in our economy, and would mark the first time a state has repealed a RTW law in nearly 60 years.
The Stand
March 17, 2023
New analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank, shows the devastating effect Michigan’s 2012 “right to work” law has had on unionization, wages, and the middle class. “An overwhelming body of research shows that states with anti-union laws restricting workers’ collective bargaining rights end up with lower wages, worse benefits, and higher workplace fatality rates,” said Jennifer SHERER, Senior State Policy Coordinator at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), who testified in support of the Restoring Workers’ Rights package before the Senate Labor Committee this morning. “Michigan legislators are right to prioritize restoring workers’ rights as an essential first step toward addressing the decades of wage stagnation and growing income inequality plaguing our economy. Other states should follow Michigan’s lead.”
Michigan AFL-CIO
March 17, 2023
It is exceedingly rare for states to overturn right-to-work laws. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said if Whitmer signs the bill into law, Michigan will be the first state to repeal a right-to-work law in nearly six decades. (Missouri voters overwhelmingly shot down their own legislature’s right-to-work laws in a 2018 ballot referendum.)
The Washington Post
March 17, 2023
And in a forthcoming report from the Economic Policy Institute, real wage growth, which is adjusted for inflation, increased during the pandemic. “Between 2019 and 2022, hourly wage growth was strongest at the bottom of the wage distribution. The 10th percentile real hourly wage (adjusted for inflation) grew 9.0% over the three-year period. Wage growth was about one-third as fast for middle-wage workers,” it read.
Bucks County Courier Times
March 16, 2023
Another concerning gap in teacher wages is the overall disparity between educators and similarly educated individuals in different professions. This finding has been described by the Economic Policy Institute as the “teacher pay penalty,” where teachers on average earned 76.5 cents on the dollar in 2021 from what similar college-educated professionals were paid.
K-12 Dive
March 16, 2023
The Raise the Wage Act would increase New York’s $15 per hour minimum wage over the next three years and index each year after to match inflation.
Data from the Economic Policy Institute finds if this bill is approved, it would increase wages for about 3 million workers across the state by more than $3,000.
Public News Service
March 10, 2023
Crucially, workers increase their wages by leaving jobs, not by staying at them: A cashier making $13 an hour at a coffee shop gets $16 an hour by taking a position at a pet store, then $19 an hour by becoming a manager at a restaurant. Yet workers tend to look for new positions less often than you might think, given the financial incentives. “There’s a lot of turnover and churn among low-wage workers, but even so, people don’t find changing their jobs that easy,” Elise Gould, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told me. “Maybe you don’t happen to see the help wanted signs. Maybe you don’t think you’ll get hired. Or you don’t have the time to look for another job.”
The Atlantic
March 10, 2023
However, research shows significant gaps in opportunity equity are rife throughout the business world. Reports from the Economic Policy Institute, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Center for Women in Academic Medicine and Science and the American Association of University Women, among others, all highlight opportunity equity gaps lurking in employment pay, and advancement related to race and gender, let alone other factors.
Forbes
March 10, 2023