Media clips

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• Your Odds of Going Back to the Office Are Dropping by the Day

  The closures mark a new, unfortunate, phase in the slow reopening of society. But the reality is that for many people, particularly people of color, working remotely has never been an option. In June, the progressive Economic Policy Institute found that only one in six Latinx workers and one in five Black workers have been able to telework during the pandemic, compared to one in four white workers. 

  The disparities are even more severe along educational lines. In April, a third of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher were teleworking. Only one in twenty workers with a high school degree or less were able to do the same. 

  Mother Jones August 2, 2021
• Editorial: Tax credits are boon to families

  Costs in Virginia were already high before the pandemic. In 2019, the Economic Policy Institute said that Virginia ranked No. 10 on the list of states with the most expensive child care. That year the average annual cost of infant care in Virginia was more than $14,000. For a 4-year-old, the annual cost was nearly $11,000.

  The Virginian-Pilot August 2, 2021
• Is the middle class okay? Half of Americans don’t think so

  Within the American economy, hourly compensation and the productivity of workers have grown disproportionately. Between 1979-2019, the Economic Policy Institute found, employees have increased productivity by 72%, but their wages have only increased 17% in the last forty years. 

  Fast Company August 2, 2021
• Inequality has soared during the pandemic–and so has C.E.O. compensation

  In 2020, the data shows, the average C.E.O. of an S. & P. 500 company made $15.5 million—two hundred and ninety-nine times as much as the median-paid employee. Although we do not have directly comparable numbers going back in time, a forthcoming study by Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra of the Economic Policy Institute tracks the average C.E.O.’s pay and the average worker’s pay (and the ratio of one to the other) for the three hundred and fifty largest public companies in the United States. They estimate that, in 1978, the average C.E.O. made $1.7 million, adjusted for inflation, which was 31.4 times the average worker’s pay. Since that time, the share of all wages and salaries collected by the highest-earning one per cent of Americans has almost doubled, reaching its current level of about thirteen per cent. Roughly forty per cent of the people who make up that one per cent are executives, and their escalating compensation, Mishel and Kandra argue, has spilled over to other top managers in for-profit firms and large nonprofits alike. The power of example aside, today’s corporate executives frequently derive financial benefit from actions (outsourcing, downsizing, merging, defeating union drives) that directly or indirectly reduce pay and opportunity further down the line. In this way, too, executive pay has arguably been a significant driver, and not just a symptom, of rising inequality. That insight has led a growing number of local, state, and federal lawmakers to develop policy proposals that would reward or penalize companies based on their pay ratios.

  The New Yorker July 30, 2021
• Opinion: How to close the wealth gap from the bottom up

  Cites EPI chart on retirement savings.

  Washington Post July 30, 2021
• ‘Broke again’: Child tax credit payments collide with debt and eviction for working families

  Her income was enough that her fiance could stay home with the two children they had at that point. Day care for an infant and a toddler in Dayton could cost around $800, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 

  Washington Post July 30, 2021
• CONGRESSMAN PROPOSES FOUR-DAY WORK WEEK

  “Reducing Americans’ average work week is a key step towards achieving a better society,” the Economic Policy Institute, which endorsed the bill, said in Takano’s press release.

  Futurism July 30, 2021
• How US fast food chains can raise wages without raising prices

  Price increases are generally quite small relative to the increase in workers’ wages, wrote Ben Zipperer, an economist at Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, in an email. There are three major ways businesses respond to higher labor costs after raising wages, he says. First, companies receive some cost savings, as higher wages help retain workers, reducing the need to spend on recruiting and training them. Businesses also see some reduction in profits, and pass along some small price increases, he says.

  Quartz July 30, 2021
• 73 Major Corporations Paid Just 5.3% Federal Tax Rate Between 2018 and 2020: Report

  Thirty-nine U.S. corporations reaping over $120 billion in profits between 2018 and 2020—the first three years of the so-called “GOP tax scam”—paid no net federal income tax, or claimed refunds during that period, a report published Thursday by the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy revealed.

  …

  Indeed, a 2019 report from the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Popular Democracy showed that the TCJA “delivered big benefits to the rich and corporations but nearly none for working families.”

  Common Dreams July 30, 2021
• Millions of low-wage women are being left behind in the pandemic recovery. A lack of care infrastructure is to blame.

  According to an Economic Policy Institute report, 92 percent of the 2.2 million domestic workers are women, and just over half are women of color. These women are the nannies, housekeepers and health aides who work inside homes and in assisted living homes, senior and childcare centers to provide caregiving and cleaning services.

  Yahoo Finance July 30, 2021
• Nonprofit calls on Missouri, Arkansas to take more measures against pandemic

  The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank created in 1986, focuses on the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions, according to its website.

  An EPI blog post on Wednesday pointed out as the COVID-19 delta variant spreads across the country, and hospitalizations rise, states with low vaccination rates — such as Missouri and Arkansas — have become more vulnerable to economic disruption.

  …

  In Arkansas, a law going into effect prohibits state leaders from implementing mask mandates and declaring public health emergencies, according to EPI.

  “The policy also prohibits local governments from enforcing mask mandates, though private businesses are permitted to require masks if they choose,” it said.

  …

  EPI also called on Missouri to restore federal pandemic unemployment insurance benefits.

  “The economic situation in Missouri is likely to get worse before it gets better,” the post said. “Even if the state does not mandate lockdowns or similar measures, a resurgence of COVID-19 cases will slow economic activity in many ways.”

  …

  “The final step Arkansas and Missouri policymakers should take is enacting paid sick leave,” the EPI said. “Workers exposed to COVID-19 should not have to choose between working while sick or being unable to pay their bills.”

  During the earlier wave of the pandemic (in 2020), EPI said, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act provided some sick leave for workers at businesses employing fewer than 500 people, but the provisions expired at the end of the year.

  Fulton Sun July 30, 2021
• CEO diversity: does it explain CEO-to-employee pay ratio?

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, the CEO-to-employee pay ratio increased by 1000% in the past 40 years.

  …

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio increased nearly 1000% in the last 40 years according to the Economic Policy Institute, widening the gap between average Americans and the top 1%. Reporting of this gap by US public firms was mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, with the first gap data becoming available in 2017. The paper explores how female and minority CEOs, given their background, may have “softer” management styles and approaches to personnel issues, which may translate to more equitable pay and lower CEO-to-employee pay ratios.

  World Economic Forum July 30, 2021
• Police chief points finger at protesters; neglects root causes of gun violence

  In Tulsa, the median household income for a White family is roughly double that of a Black family, according to the city’s 2020 Tulsa Equality Indicators report. Nationally, the median Black family earns 61 cents for every dollar a median White family owns, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  Black Wall Street Times July 30, 2021
• California Congressman Mark Takano Introduces Legislation For A Four-Day Workweek

  This bill has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, the Economic Policy Institute, Service Employees International Union, the National Employment Law Project and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Original cosponsors of this legislation include Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.).

  Forbes July 30, 2021
• A 10% raise helped McDonald’s ease its worker shortage, CEO says

  Heidi Shierholz, the director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, previously told Insider that raising the minimum wage could be one simple solution to the labor shortage. Another prominent figure agrees with her: President Joe Biden recently said that businesses will need to pay $15 or “be in a bind for a little while.”

  Business Insider July 30, 2021
• Los trabajadores agrícolas, entre los empleados “esenciales” peor pagados en 2020, según un análisis

  “Los últimos datos salariales muestran que los trabajadores agrícolas no fueron recompensados adecuadamente: ganaron sólo $14.62 dólares por hora en 2020, mucho menos que incluso algunos de los trabajadores peor pagados de la población activa estadounidense”, dice Daniel Costa, director de investigación en derecho y política de inmigración en el Economic Policy Institute, en un reciente análisis.

  Con esta media salarial, los trabajadores agrícolas ganaron 60 por ciento menos que los trabajadores en otras industrias en cargos bajos (no de supervisores) y de producción, quienes ganaron en promedio unos $24.67 dólares por hora en 2020.

  “Esta brecha salarial prácticamente no ha cambiado desde el 2019”, agrega Costa.

  …

  Según explica Costa, los datos más confiables para saber los ingresos de los trabajadores agrícolas vienen del Servicio Nacional de Estadísticas Agrícolas (National Agricultural Statistics Service o NASS, por sus siglas en inglés) en el Departamento de Agricultura de Estados Unidos (USDA), que realiza trimestralmente la Encuesta sobre el Trabajo Agrícola (Farm Labor Survey o FLS por sus siglas en inglés). 

  …

  Además, los trabajadores agrícolas ganaron menos que otros trabajadores con niveles bajos de educación. “Los datos más recientes muestran que los salarios de los trabajadores agrícolas son extremadamente bajos desde cualquier punto de vista, incluso si se comparan con los de los trabajadores no agrícolas en situación similar y con los trabajadores con los niveles de educación más bajos”, dice Costa.

  …

  “A pesar de esta sombría realidad, no se adoptó ninguna medida federal para proteger a los trabajadores agrícolas, que fueron designados como esenciales pero siguieron recibiendo algunos de los salarios más bajos del mercado laboral estadounidense”, dice Costa.

  Entre las recomendaciones que Costa mencionó están aprobar medidas inmediatas para mejorar las normas laborales de todos los trabajadores agrícolas y alienta que más estados aprueben leyes que garanticen protegerlos de las enfermedades causadas por el calor, mejores condiciones de salud y paguen las horas extras de trabajo en el campo.

  City Limits July 30, 2021
• $15 wage becoming a norm as employers struggle to fill jobs

  Other states on track to a $15 an hour wage floor include California, Illinois, New York and Virginia. Ben Zipperer, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, estimates that four in 10 workers live in states where the minimum is set to reach $15 in the coming years.

   

  Associated Press July 30, 2021
• Starting a business? Check whether you signed a non-compete agreement at your old job

  Non-competes are documents that an employer can force a new hire to sign agreeing to not compete against that company if they leave their job. About half of private U.S. businesses require employees to sign such agreements, the Economic Policy Institute found in a 2019 study.

  According to a 2019 study from the Economic Policy Institute, about half of private U.S. businesses require employees to sign such agreements.

  USA Today July 30, 2021
• Wages are rising, but inflation may have given workers a 2% pay cut

  Average hourly earnings rose 3.6%, to $30.40, in June compared with the same month in 2020. That’s the biggest spike since January 2009, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute.

  CNBC July 30, 2021
• Jill On Money: Will inflation kill the recovery?

  Adding to the inflationary pressure are wages, which are rising. In a rare, Onion-esque sarcastic headline, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute wrote, “Newsflash: Higher pay attracts workers.” While some companies can absorb higher employee costs, others are passing them along to consumers, which Economist Diane Swonk of Grant Thornton believes could mean that “Some of the inflation we are experiencing could linger.”

  The Mercury News July 30, 2021
• Are remote workers more replaceable than in-person workers? Managers say yes

  Overall, the ability to work from home falls unevenly along dimensions like education level and race, according to research published by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think-tank.

  MarketWatch July 30, 2021
• ‘A Critical Part of Our Infrastructure’: How California Plans to Bolster Child Care

  It’s a matter of saying this is a critical part of our infrastructure. It’s necessary to support families, it’s necessary to support our economy, and it’s necessary to make sure the people doing this work are not worried about feeding their own families. The problem is getting movement on that, getting the general public, and our legislators to support that in full.

  Some of my colleagues at the Economic Policy Institute have done some estimates to help us understand what the harm is and what the loss is for not doing that. They’ve estimated that parents are foregoing $30-$35 billion in income and lost household income because they either have to leave the labor force, or reduce their hours.

  KQED July 30, 2021
• Federal bill holdup delaying bus replacements, Topeka Metro says

  Congress members disagree on how to pay for the bill, according to Rob Scott, Senior Economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

  “The problem has been a reluctance to spend, a reluctance to tax, a desire to prioritize tax-cutting over all other priorities,” Scott said.

  KSNT July 30, 2021
• Biden Administration Moves to Tilt Pay and Power Toward Workers

  Recent action “signifies a shift that I hope will then launch into a much broader proactive agenda,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who served as the Labor Department’s chief economist during the Obama administration.

  The Wall Street Journal July 30, 2021
• More students of color are attending Cape Cod schools. But the vast majority of teachers are white

  Nationwide, fewer young people are pursuing teaching careers. From 2008 to 2015, the number of college students earning education degrees fell 15 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Teacher retention may be an even bigger hurdle, with the turnover rate for teachers of color surpassing that of white teachers by 20 to 30 percent.

  Boston Globe July 30, 2021
• What’s a “Stuck Nation”? America in 2021, paralyzed by injustice and inequality

  As the Obama years drew to a close, the Economic Policy Institute observed astutely that the country had “suffered from rising income inequality and chronically slow growth in the living standards of low- and moderate-income Americans.”

  The erosion of the middle class that has been in the making at least since the 1970s — when American workers stopped seeing their wages grow at a pace with their increasing productivity — was continuing.  By August 2016, EPI reported that from 1973 until 2015, while productivity increased by more than 73%, hourly pay for workers went up only 11% — in other words, productivity grew by more than six times the rise in wages earned by workers.

  Salon July 30, 2021
• Letter to the editor: PRO Act would restore economic balance by shoring up middle-class wages

  During that time, wages rose with productivity. However, over the last 40 years, despite advancements in automation and technology, which increased worker productivity by nearly 70%, wages have increased less than 12%, the Economic Policy Institute has found.

  Kent Ravenna Record-Courier July 30, 2021
• Inside the disagreement and inaction in Congress over raising the minimum wage, which hasn’t gone up in 12 years

  A recent report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute finds that the federal minimum wage is worth 21% less than it was in 2009.

  Business Insider July 30, 2021
• July 30th
  July 30, 2021
• Inequality has soared during the pandemic–and so has C.E.O. compensation

  In 2020, the data shows, the average C.E.O. of an S. & P. 500 company made $15.5 million—two hundred and ninety-nine times as much as the median-paid employee. Although we do not have directly comparable numbers going back in time, a forthcoming study by Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra of the Economic Policy Institute tracks the average C.E.O.’s pay and the average worker’s pay (and the ratio of one to the other) for the three hundred and fifty largest public companies in the United States. They estimate that, in 1978, the average C.E.O. made $1.7 million, adjusted for inflation, which was 31.4 times the average worker’s pay. Since that time, the share of all wages and salaries collected by the highest-earning one per cent of Americans has almost doubled, reaching its current level of about thirteen per cent. Roughly forty per cent of the people who make up that one per cent are executives, and their escalating compensation, Mishel and Kandra argue, has spilled over to other top managers in for-profit firms and large nonprofits alike. The power of example aside, today’s corporate executives frequently derive financial benefit from actions (outsourcing, downsizing, merging, defeating union drives) that directly or indirectly reduce pay and opportunity further down the line. In this way, too, executive pay has arguably been a significant driver, and not just a symptom, of rising inequality. That insight has led a growing number of local, state, and federal lawmakers to develop policy proposals that would reward or penalize companies based on their pay ratios.

  The New Yorker July 30, 2021