Media clips

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• Productivity, balance and the four-day workweek

  Guest host Kevin McCorry is joined by Penn State Abington professor of economics and Economic Policy Institute researcher Lonnie Golden

  WHYY August 6, 2021
• Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president, dies at 72

  “Trumka was a champion for workers’ rights and a passionate leader of the labor movement,” said an Aug. 5 statement from John Schmidt, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, for which Trumka was chair of its board of directors. “His legacy will not be forgotten as together we navigate the critical challenges facing America’s workers and build an economy that works for everyone.”

  Catholic News Service August 6, 2021
• Coal Miner’s Son

  Despite these constraints, Trumka continued Sweeney’s commitment to working closely with other progressive movements, to pushing the policy envelope leftwards (Trumka chaired the board of the Economic Policy Institute), to promoting a vision of the common good that was sometimes broader than that of some of his union brothers and sisters.

  American Prospect August 6, 2021
• New businesses take root in Houston’s Black neighborhoods during COVID

  [paywall]…more than the 4.9 percent for white employees, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank. 

  Houston Chronicle August 6, 2021
• Economics in Brief: Pay Gap Among Black Women is Even Evident Among Our Essential Workers

  The Economic Policy Institute reports that even Black women who are essential workers face a pay gap of about 11-27% less than white men. Black female nurses, for instance, earn about $28.47/hour while non-Hispanic white men earn $34.87 for the same job.

  The study adds that occupational segregation often limits the access Black women have to higher-paying jobs, and that the pandemic saw a disproportionate share of women, especially Black women, become unemployed. 18.3% of Black female workers lost their jobs compared to 13.2% of white men.

  Next City August 6, 2021
• Quick confirmations set up early NLRB policy shift

  Includes quote from Celine McNicholas…[paywall]

  Law360 August 6, 2021
• If the minimum wage were $24 an hour and tied to worker productivity, a long-held trickle-down myth might actually come true.

  Virtually every Econ 101 class teaches the trickle-down myth that workers are paid what they are worth, and locking the minimum wage into national productivity numbers would be a way to finally ensure that claim is true.

  This is the figure that would do the most for American workers. As a recent Economic Policy Institute paper found, productivity has increased by over 72% from 1979 to 2019, while worker pay has only increased by 17%. 

  Business Insider August 6, 2021
• This state has the lowest minimum wage — and these states have none at all

  President Joe Biden and most Democrats have been calling for a drastic increase in the federal minimum wage, to $15 from $7.25. While a handful of states and many prominent companies have taken matters into their own hands, raising their minimum wages well into the double digits, other states are tied to the federal minimum wage, which hasn’t changed since 2009. Where does your state fit in, and are there any changes on the horizon? We examined data from the Economic Policy Institute to find out.

  MSN August 6, 2021
• 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2021
• August 6
  August 6, 2021
• 10 ways the PRO Act could change the game for employers and organized labor

  Advocates for eradicating right-to-work laws say they degrade the power of organizing. Right-to-work laws “starve unions,” Heidi Shierholz, witness at the hearing and senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, told HR Dive. “They say that [unions] that have to represent all these workers, legally — they have to represent everybody in the bargaining unit — cannot charge for any of those services.”

  HR Dive August 6, 2021
• Wage Gap Stats You Need To Know On Black Women’s Equal Pay Day

  August 3, 2021, marks Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, and there are a lot of wage-gap statistics you need to know on this day — which highlights the amount of time Black women need to work to earn the same wages as their white male counterparts — include the troubling fact that Black women workers are paid only 68 cents on the dollar relative to white non-Hispanic men, even after controlling for education, years of experience, and location, according to the Economic Policy Institute. And, Black women must work four months longer than white women to earn the same wage. This is not equality.

  …

  “Pay inequity directly touches the lives of Black women in at least three distinct ways,” Valerie Wilson, Janelle Jones, Kayla Blado, and Elise Gould reported on the EPI blog. “Since few Black women are among the top five percent of earners in this country, they have experienced the relatively slow wage growth that characterizes growing class inequality along with the vast majority of other Americans. But in addition to this class inequality, they also experience lower pay due to gender and race bias.”

  …

  Additionally, the EPI reported that “regardless of their connection to the labor market, their level of educational attainment, or their occupation, they are paid less than their white male counterparts. The ongoing gender and racial discrimination faced by Black women means that seven months into 2017, Black women finally have equal pay with what white men earned last year.” The wage gap is not an alternative fact.

  …

  The EPI reported in 2019 that even though white women have increased their hours the most between 1979 and 2016, Black women were already working more in prior years.

  The EPI reported that an increase in the numbers of hours worked in response to slow wage growth has largely been among women, and is even higher for Black women.

  One myth about Black women at work, and women in general, is that they choose lower-paying careers. In fact, according to the EPI, Black women are often subjected to occupational segregation, and are pushed into jobs mostly populated by other Black women.

  Additional, the EPI reported that Black women earn less in every type of job. “While white male physicians and surgeons earn, on average, $18 per hour more than Black women doing the same job, the gap for retail salespersons is also shocking, at more than $9 an hour.”

  …

  There is another myth that is often perpetuated that women could breakthrough the glass ceiling is they had more education. The EPI reported that two-thirds of Black women in the workforce have some postsecondary education, 29.4 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher. However, Black women are still paid less than white men at every level of education.

  …

  “As Black women increase their educational attainment, their pay gap with white men continues to grow,” the EPI noted. “The largest gap, of nearly $17 an hour, occurs for workers with more than a college degree. But even Black women with an advanced degree earn less, slightly more than $7 an hour less, than white men who only have a bachelor’s degree.”

   

   

  Bustle August 6, 2021
• What Women Owe One Another on Black Women’s Equal Pay Day

  To understand the origins of the gap between Black and white women, one need only look back as far as the 1970s, the decade that saw the first series of victories in pay and other gender-discrimination cases, says Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy. That decade also saw major increases in the number of women, particularly white women, in the full-time workforce. In fact, the growth rate for women in the workforce was twice that of men.

  …

  But in the 1990s, a second pay gap, one between white women and other groups of women, emerged, Wilson, an economist, says, as white women experienced a faster rate of wage growth than Black women and other groups of women. That means that the pay gap is the handiwork of people who are, in many cases, still hiring and firing, promoting and making pay decisions today. Some of the deciders are themselves women.

  …

  But the racial wage gap among women isn’t just about which industries which women enter. To be clear, Valerie Wilson says, it is also about bias, about stereotypes and notions of who deserves to earn what. The individual can try, and may sometimes succeed, in asking for fair pay. But there’s almost no way to negotiate past bias to eliminate all wage gaps. Pay disparities exist between white women and other groups of women at every rung of the income, experience and education ladder.

   

  Time August 6, 2021
• Black Women’s Equal Pay Day: 214 days into 2021, Black women have finally earned what white men did last year

  The pandemic compounded the calculations because Black and women of color were harder hit by unemployment, with 18.3% of Black women losing their jobs between February 2020 and April 2020, compared with 13.2% of white men, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

   

  New York Daily News August 6, 2021
• The New Economics Is Here

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, at the current pace, we are likely to recover at five times the speed of the recovery from the 2008–09 Great Recession: This means in two years, not 10.

  New Republic August 6, 2021
• Child care is now a major political issue. Here’s how the Boston mayoral candidates want to reform it

  (Parents pay far more for infant care — an average $21,000 a year in Massachusetts, the second most expensive state in the nation for that age group, according to the Economic Policy Institute.)

  Boston Globe August 6, 2021
• Productivity, balance and the four-day workweek

  Guest host Kevin McCorry is joined by Penn State Abington professor of economics and Economic Policy Institute researcher LONNIE GOLDEN

  WHYY August 6, 2021
• Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president, dies at 72

  “Trumka was a champion for workers’ rights and a passionate leader of the labor movement,” said an Aug. 5 statement from John Schmidt, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, for which Trumka was chair of its board of directors. “His legacy will not be forgotten as together we navigate the critical challenges facing America’s workers and build an economy that works for everyone.”

  America Magazine August 6, 2021
• Coal Miner’s Son

  Despite these constraints, Trumka continued Sweeney’s commitment to working closely with other progressive movements, to pushing the policy envelope leftwards (Trumka chaired the board of the Economic Policy Institute), to promoting a vision of the common good that was sometimes broader than that of some of his union brothers and sisters.

  American Prospect August 6, 2021
• Economics in Brief: Pay Gap Among Black Women is Even Evident Among Our Essential Workers

  The Economic Policy Institute reports that even Black women who are essential workers face a pay gap of about 11-27% less than white men. Black female nurses, for instance, earn about $28.47/hour while non-Hispanic white men earn $34.87 for the same job.

  The study adds that occupational segregation often limits the access Black women have to higher-paying jobs, and that the pandemic saw a disproportionate share of women, especially Black women, become unemployed. 18.3% of Black female workers lost their jobs compared to 13.2% of white men.

  Next City August 6, 2021
• New businesses take root in Houston’s Black neighborhoods during COVID

  [paywall]…more than the 4.9 percent for white employees, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank. 

  Houston Chronicle August 6, 2021
• Quick confirmations set up early NLRB policy shift

  Includes quote from Celine McNicholas…[paywall]

  Law360 August 2, 2021
• If the minimum wage were $24 an hour and tied to worker productivity, a long-held trickle-down myth might actually come true.

  Virtually every Econ 101 class teaches the trickle-down myth that workers are paid what they are worth, and locking the minimum wage into national productivity numbers would be a way to finally ensure that claim is true.

  This is the figure that would do the most for American workers. As a recent Economic Policy Institute paper found, productivity has increased by over 72% from 1979 to 2019, while worker pay has only increased by 17%. 

  Business Insider August 2, 2021
• This state has the lowest minimum wage — and these states have none at all

  President Joe Biden and most Democrats have been calling for a drastic increase in the federal minimum wage, to $15 from $7.25. While a handful of states and many prominent companies have taken matters into their own hands, raising their minimum wages well into the double digits, other states are tied to the federal minimum wage, which hasn’t changed since 2009. Where does your state fit in, and are there any changes on the horizon? We examined data from the Economic Policy Institute to find out.

  MSN August 2, 2021
• 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