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+20 +1
Why We Must End Upward Pre-Distributions To The Rich
You often hear inequality has widened because globalization and technological change have made most people less competitive, while making the best educated more competitive. There’s some truth to this. The tasks most people used to do can now be done more cheaply by lower-paid workers abroad or by computer-driven machines.
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+29 +1
Why These Workers Are Going On Strike When The Pope Visits D.C.
As the Pope arrives in D.C., he'll be greeted by low-wage workers walking off their jobs.
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+19 +1
One Map Shows How Many Hours You Need to Work Minimum Wage to Rent an Apartment in Any State
The rent is too damn high.
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+23 +1
1 in 5 Louisiana residents lived in poverty last year: census data
Louisiana had the third-highest rate of poverty in the country for 2014, at 19.8 percent, falling behind only New Mexico and Mississippi.
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+27 +1
State-Level Data Show Incomes Continue to Stagnate in Households Across the Map
Thursday’s release of state income data from the American Community Survey (ACS) showed that the gradual improvement in state economies from 2013 to 2014 brought little change in overall economic conditions for households in most states. The ACS data showed a slight increase in median household income for the United States overall and similar modest increases in household incomes in a majority of states—although only a handful of these increases were statistically significant.
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+16 +1
What Families Need to Get By: EPI’s 2015 Family Budget Calculator
The income level necessary for families to secure an adequate but modest living standard is an important economic yardstick. While poverty thresholds help to evaluate what it takes for families to live free of serious economic deprivation, EPI's Family Budget Calculator offers a broader measure of economic welfare.
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+22 +1
Board Issues Decision in Browning-Ferris Industries
In a 3-2 decision involving Browning-Ferris Industries of California, the National Labor Relations Board refined its standard for determining joint-employer status. The revised standard is designed “to better effectuate the purposes of the Act in the current economic landscape.” With more than 2.87 million of the nation’s workers employed through temporary agencies in August 2014, the Board held that its previous joint employer standard has failed to keep pace with changes in the workplace...
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+18 +1
Atlas Shrugged: The New Feudalism
Why does Galt only intend to charge Dagny a “very small” fee? According to the law which he made up on the spot, he could charge her any price he chooses. Why not say that the penalty for trespassing is a fine the size of her entire bank account, or that room and board in his house costs a thousand dollars a day? This is John Galt we’re talking about, after all. The first time we saw him, the text said that he had “a ruthless innocence which would not seek forgiveness or grant it”.
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+23 +1
These guys want to gut America: 6 ways the GOP has obliterated American opportunity—and how we can start fighting back
Despite their supposed diversity, GOP candidates share a dependence on two broad-spectrum lies: First, that they’re better at producing overall growth — for example: Trump boasting, “I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created,” or Bush promising “4 percent growth as far as the eye can see” — and, second, that growth by itself will benefit everyone.
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+29 +1
Republicans debated in Ohio. The economy barely came up.
Polls continue to show that Americans care more about the economy than any other election issue. Fox News moderators noted that they had received more than 3,000 economy-themed questions on Facebook before the debate. Which is why it's so baffling that neither the questioners nor most candidates seemed eager to talk about growth, jobs and - as Republicans have been promising to do all election cycle - America's beleaguered working class.
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+1 +1
9 CEOs paid 800 times more than their workers
New SEC rules to force companies to disclose CEO pay relative to workers. It's a big gap
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+21 +1
Economic Institutions Should Keep Americans Out of Poverty, not Norms
I set out to replicate the Sawhill/Haskins figures, which was met with mixed success. I did manage to basically replicate the initial screen they put on the 2007 data, which involves excluding all families headed by people below the age of 25, above the age of 64, and who receive disability income. No matter how much I tried, I could never get the figures to line up exactly, but I got close enough:
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+27 +1
I work at the US Senate. I shouldn't have to dance at strip clubs to feed my son
I’m a single mother and I struggle to support my son on the $10.33 an hour I make at one of the most exclusive clubs in America – the US Senate. I’m a cashier employed by the British-owned contractor that runs the cafeterias in the Senate office buildings. But even though I serve some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world, I can’t afford to buy my son school supplies or clothes.
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+24 +1
CEO pay out of line with free markets
The ties between boards of directors, who set compensation levels, and chief executive officers is too incestuous to be considered free market negotiations.
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+57 +1
Paramedic’s Facebook Rant About “Burger Flippers” Making $15/Hour Going Viral
'we don't realize they made off with almost the whole damn cake.'
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+22 +1
Pennsylvania Employers Steal Tens Of Millions Of Dollars From Their Workers In Any Given Week
Rampant wage theft is slicing hundreds of millions of dollars out of the Pennsylvania economy each year, a new analysis suggests.
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+19 +1
Inequality is Central to the Productivity-Pay Gap
Matt Yglesias is an insightful writer, but his recent article, “Hillary Clinton’s favorite chart is pretty misleading” is itself very misleading. Since the Clinton campaign’s “favorite chart” is an EPI chart, which Jared Bernstein and I originally came up with twenty years ago, I think it’s important to set the record straight. The main problem is that Yglesias does not actually engage with the chart he says he’s criticizing.
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+28 +1
The absolute worst advice we give to Americans struggling to pay rent
High rents are a national, not just an urban problem. Real estate company Zillow noted this year that in 2015, rents increased nationally by more than 3 percent. Meanwhile, personal incomes are creeping along; in May of 2015, disposable personal income grew just .5 percent. The average national rent, according to ApartmentGuide, is close to $800, while working full-time for the federal minimum wage nets you just under $1,000.
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+9 +1
Some restaurants abolish tipping — will more follow suit?
To tip or not to tip? Now, rising minimum wages and moves by high-profile chefs are putting the future of the tip line in jeopardy.
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+25 +1
10 Ways the American Safety Net Is Being Shredded
FDR’s New Deal is in trouble in 2015.
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