Media clips

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• Report Finds CEO Compensation at Large Companies Increased by Nearly 19 Percent in 2020

  CEOs at the top 350 companies in 2020 made an average $24.2 million, a 18.9% jump, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  The report also found that CEO compensation has increased an astounding 1,322% since 1978. From 1978-2020, the pay for an average worker only increased 18.0%.

  Complex August 13, 2021
• Job openings hit record high, with 10.1 million openings

  However, that most frequently used unemployment figure leaves out millions of people who are jobless but not actively job-searching. According to Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, the true count of the unemployed in July was over 13 million.

  CBS Moneywatch August 13, 2021
• On The Money: Five takeaways from a stellar July jobs report

  “After ticking up in June, the unemployment rate fell for the right reasons in July as more people found work rather than left the labor force,” wrote Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  The Hill August 13, 2021
• 32-Hour Workweek For Americans Proposed By RivCo Lawmaker

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, “Work hours are highly unequal. Millions of people want to work more hours to earn more income while others want to work less to achieve a healthier work/life balance. A 32-hour workweek will directly help those trying to achieve greater work/life balance, while freeing up hours that can be picked up by involuntarily part-time workers. In addition to that, shorter workweeks have important environmental benefits. Reducing Americans’ average workweek is a key step towards achieving a better society.”

  Banning-Beaumont Patch August 13, 2021
• Employers Are Preparing to Give out Bigger Raises Next Year

  Before the pandemic, American workers’ yearly average raises were around 3%. They are gradually making their way back to pre-pandemic rates, though one group was the exception and saw huge pay bumps throughout the most difficult part of the recession: CEOs’ compensation went up by 16% in 2020, compared to 1.8% for the average worker, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.

  Money August 13, 2021
• The Climate Stat We Can’t Afford to Overlook: CEO Pay

  This week’s second blockbuster report arrived Tuesday, sans the thunderclap. Few media outlets chose to give this second study — the Economic Policy Institute’s latest look at U.S. CEO pay — any high-profile real estate.

  Inequality.org August 13, 2021
• New report: CEO pay has reached truly absurd and unjust levels

  A new report from researchers Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra the Economic Policy Institute has the latest disturbing news about the way our nation continues to allow a narrow class of plutocrats to make off with a vast portion of its wealth.

  The report finds that, even compared to the other members of the top 0.1%, American CEO’s are making off like bandits.

  The Progressive Pulse August 13, 2021
• CEOs got paid 351 times what typical workers made in 2020

  The Economic Policy Institute recently compiled research looking at compensation packages of top executives finding that the wage gap between the typical employee and company leaders is massive. During that same time period, the report found that the average worker only saw their compensation grow by 18%.

  Ladders August 13, 2021
• ‘There Is a Fundamental Imbalance in the Power of Employers and Employees’

  Janine Jackson interviewed Economic Policy Institute’s David Cooper about the “we all quit” phenomenon for the August 6, 2021, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

  Joining us with a different angle is David Cooper, senior economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, and deputy director of EARN, the Economic Analysis and Research Network, a national network of state-level policy research and advocacy organizations. He joins us now by phone. Welcome to CounterSpin, David Cooper.

  FAIR Counterspin August 13, 2021
• AOC rips inequality, highlighting the time it takes for a normal family to double their income: 100 years

  Since the late 1960s, wages have made up an increasingly smaller share of the US’s gross domestic product, even as the economy grew. In the meantime, CEO pay has grown by 1,322% between 1978 and 2020, according to a report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  Business Insider August 13, 2021
• July consumer price index shows signs of easing inflation

  Some wage inflation for workers is fine, according to Josh Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute.

  “People are going out to restaurants again, and wages and employment are both rising. And until we see evidence that the fast wage growth is like choking off employment growth, I think we just have to say, ‘That’s really good. Restaurant workers actually have some bargaining power they traditionally do not have,’” Bivens said.

  Marketplace August 13, 2021
• Kentucky already has a teacher shortage, but consistently low pay could be making it worse

  According to the National Educational Association, Kentucky ranks 42nd in the nation for starting salaries, with new teachers averaging about $37,000 per year. The overall salary for educators is a little better, at nearly $54,000 per year, but teachers are still only making 78 cents for every dollar someone with similar education and experience in a different field can make, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  Salaries aren’t the only point of contention for Kentucky teachers. According to the Economic Policy Institute, teachers in Kentucky on average spend more than $400 of their own money every year to provide supplies for their students and classrooms.

  WHAS 11 August 13, 2021
• Tinder Sex Assault Case Centers on Arbitration as #MeToo Barrier

  The use of arbitration clauses in employment agreements has increased dramatically in the last 20 years, from only 2% of workers subject to forced arbitration in 1992 compared with 56% in 2018, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute. The left-leaning think tank projects that this number will increase to 80% by 2024.

  Bloomberg Law August 13, 2021
• CEO Pay Now 351 Times Higher Than Average Worker

  A new report issued by the Economic Policy Institute has tracked CEO pay back to 1978 and says that the average chief executive’s pay has grown 1,322% in that time period. And while that’s certainly a long span of time — more than 40 years — the average worker’s pay has grown a mere 18 percent during that same time period.

  This means the average CEO makes $351 for every dollar the average worker does… and though a recent report in Forbes says wealth increased for the ultra-wealthy to the tune of $5 trillion during the pandemic, EPI points out that the CEO-to-worker pay ratio isn’t even the highest it’s ever been. That happened in 2000, when it was 366-to-1.

  Manufacturing.net August 13, 2021
• One-off tax on $5.5 trillion Covid profits of world’s richest would pay for world to be vaccinated and give unemployed $20k

  An August report from progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute found that corporate boards have awarded America’s top executives compensation packages that radically outpace stock market growth and worker pay, while the nation’s federally set hourly minimum wage has remained at $7.25 for more than a decade.

  The Independent August 13, 2021
• Ballot campaign seeks to raise Nebraska minimum wage to $15

  Twenty-five other states increased their minimum wage on Jan. 1, according to the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. The current highest rate is $15.20 an hour, in the District of Columbia, although some states have adopted annual indexing that increases their rates automatically each year.

  Associated Press August 13, 2021
• CEO pay has soared 1,322 per cent since 1978

  These outsize compensation packages have grown faster than the stock market, and the pay of typical workers, college graduates, and even the top 0.1 per cent, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  “Exorbitant CEO pay is a major contributor to rising inequality that we could safely do away with,” write authors Lawrence Mishell, a distinguished fellow, and research assistant Jori Kandra.

  “CEOs are getting more because of their power to set pay and because so much of their pay (more than 80 per cent) is stock-related, not because they are increasing their productivity or possess specific, high-demand skills.”

  During the same period, the pay of the typical worker increased 18 per cent.

  The Independent (via Yahoo! News) August 13, 2021
• Retail Workers Are Quitting At A Record Pace. But Stores Are Rapidly Hiring, Too

  Meanwhile, inflation is erasing the buying power of those new raises. I talked to Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, and she says if this was a big change that’s giving workers a new kind of long-term power, wage growth would be much higher. And she worries over time, wages might simply get frozen again while prices continue rising.

  NPR August 13, 2021
• Millennials make up the largest share of homebuyers in California. How do they do it?

  While housing costs doubled or tripled, wages didn’t. Compensation rose 17.2% since 1979, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  Sacramento Bee August 13, 2021
• Wages rise in US as companies scramble for staff

  “For the first time since the late 1990s, low-wage workers have a little more leverage to demand higher pay,” said David Cooper, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive Washington think tank.

  AFP (via Yahoo! News) August 13, 2021
• Since 1978, CEO Pay Has Risen 1,322%. Typical Worker Pay? Just 18%

  A new analysis released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute finds that CEO pay in the United States rose by a staggering 1,322% between 1978 and 2020—a sharp contrast to the pay increase of the typical worker, which was just 18% during that same period.

  In 2020, a year of pandemic and widespread economic dislocation, the top executives at the largest public firms in the U.S. were paid 351 times as much as the typical worker, with CEO pay measured by salary, bonuses, long-term incentive payouts, and exercised stock options.

  Common Dreams August 13, 2021
• CEO pay at big companies rose nearly 19% last year to $24 million, report finds

  The chief executives at major U.S. corporations received millions of dollars in bonuses or raises last year even as many companies saw slumping sales and job cuts because of the pandemic, a new analysis shows.

  CEO compensation at the top 350 companies jumped nearly 19% in 2020 to an average $24.2 million, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank. By comparison, pay for rank-and-file workers last year rose roughly 4%. The typical corporate leader at big companies in 2020 made $351 for every dollar earned by a typical employee, up from a ratio of 307-to-1 in 2019, according to EPI.

  Economist Lawrence Mishel, who co-authored the report, said some companies touted reductions in pay for top executives to reflect the pandemic’s impact on business, but had little impact. “CEOs offering pay cuts during the pandemic yielded favorable headlines, but were symbolic at best and a head fake at worst,” he said in a statement.

  CBS August 13, 2021
• Another 3.9 million people quit their jobs in June—and many are getting higher-paying roles

  If all these workers were taken into account, July’s unemployment rate would be 8.1% instead of the reported 5.4%, according to Heidi Shierholz, the director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute.

  CNBC August 13, 2021
• Amazon forewent incentives to build massive facilities

  Still, all numbers considered, the Impact DataSource analysis shows that the benefits outweigh the costs. But there may be more to consider than just the numbers: An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit think tank, found that while Amazon fulfillment centers clearly create warehouse jobs, the new employment is “likely offset by job losses in other [local] industries.”

  “Amazon isn’t only hiring people who don’t have jobs,” explains Ben Zipperer, an economist at EPI who coauthored the analysis on Amazon. “It’s attracting workers from other businesses that already have jobs.”

  These could be people coming from fast food or retail jobs, he says. And while these folks may be able to find higher wages at Amazon, the overall impact on employment in a local area is often minimal.

  “In those places that Amazon builds fulfillment centers, you do see [that] there’s more people working in warehousing,” Zipperer says. But when it comes to the “overall impact on the local economy, we didn’t find any evidence that it [Amazon] significantly increased the number of people working.”

  If Amazon doesn’t necessarily boost local employment, will it at least boost wages across Albuquerque? We won’t know until it happens, but a 2018 article from The Economist explains that in some areas, Amazon warehouse jobs seem to be linked to lower wages for similar occupations across a region. And Zipperer from EPI notes that working conditions are reportedly poor in some Amazon locations. Finally, even if Amazon doesn’t push down wages, their starting pay isn’t especially competitive compared to similar jobs.

  KRQE Media August 13, 2021
• Businesses really don’t want to fire anyone right now — but workers are quitting more than ever

  Heidi Shierholz, the director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, previously told Insider that this isn’t a “damaging” labor shortage — hiring was still up in industries like leisure and hospitality as pay went up, showing that growing wages might be the key to getting workers back.

  Business Insider August 13, 2021
• Wall Street Splashes Cash on Junior Bankers

  In late 2018, there were 1.5 million more available jobs than there were Americans looking for work. Right now, with 9.5 million Americans out of work, that difference is 600,000. But as Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute pointed out, if you consider people without jobs not actively looking for work, who are not counted as part of the official unemployed, the ranks of the jobless far out number open positions.

  New York Times August 13, 2021
• Why Is the American Education System So Expensive?

  Parents first experience the heavy burden of tuition costs when they enroll their child in preschool. The average cost of child care, which includes early education, is more than $8,000 annually, according to the Economic Policy Institute — a figure which exceeds the in-state tuition for public universities in many U.S. states.

  GO Banking Rates (via Yahoo! Finance) August 13, 2021
• CEOs got paid 351 times what typical workers made in 2020

  A new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, authored by Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra, finds that CEO compensation has grown by 1,322% between 1978 and 2020.

  In contrast, the report finds that the typical worker saw their compensation grow by just 18% during that time period. 

  That could also be seen in the discrepancy between CEO and worker pay, which was 351-to-1 in 2020. While the authors note that the CEO to worker compensation ratio peaked in 2000 at 366-to-1, it’s still higher than any time from the 1960’s through the 1990’s. 

  They used a “realized” measure for compensation, which accounts for stock awards when they were vested, and stock options when they were cashed in. Under the “granted” measure, which values compensation plans based on when stock packages were granted, compensation was slightly lower.

  Inequality between CEOs and everyone else even extends to the top. The report also looks at CEO compensation in comparison to the earnings of the top 0.1% of earners. The authors found that CEO compensation was 6.44 times higher than what those in the top 0.1% made in 2019, based on the most recently available tax data from the IRS.

  “The CEOs are in a different stratosphere,” Mishel told Insider, adding: “It’s not just that the CEOs are so-called highly skilled or highly educated, they’ve done far better than the average earner who’s very highly skilled in the top one-thousandth, or very highly educated.”

  …

  Mishel said that he thinks unemployment will continue to drop substantially by the end of 2022. 

  “I think the pressure on employers to improve wages and benefits will continue,” Mishel said. He said that Biden administration policies addressing labor standards — like raising the minimum wage and improving collective bargaining — could also contribute to a greater shift. 

  “If those are able to be enacted it’ll reinforce a shift in power towards workers, which is something they desperately need — because they’ve been on the losing end for four decades.”
  Business Insider August 13, 2021
• This is a first: The US has 10 million job openings

  The uptick in the quits rate is likely due “in part to increased opportunities for workers to find better job matches, potentially with higher wages or safer working conditions in the lingering pandemic,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, in a tweet.

  CNN Business August 13, 2021
• Report Finds CEO Compensation at Large Companies Increased by Nearly 19 Percent in 2020

  CEOs at the top 350 companies in 2020 made an average $24.2 million, a 18.9% jump, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  The report also found that CEO compensation has increased an astounding 1,322% since 1978. From 1978-2020, the pay for an average worker only increased 18.0%.

  Complex August 13, 2021