Union Jobs Pay Better Wages

by | Oct 18, 2016

The trend of stagnant and declining wages for low- and moderate-wage workers coincides with the decline of union membership, as demonstrated in the first part of this article. Both of these trends also coincide with a long-term pattern of anemic economic performance....

How Wage Stagnation Contributes to a Lackluster National Economy

by | Oct 13, 2016

Wage stagnation—a major contributor to income inequality in the U.S.—is a particular problem for workers at the middle and lower end of the wage scale. While the wages of workers in high-wage jobs has continued to grow in recent decades, the wages of low- and...

Education Alone Does Not Explain the Racial/Ethnic Earnings Gap

by | Oct 11, 2016

Americans in general experienced strong earnings growth from 2014 to 2015; this was especially true for blacks and Hispanics, as noted in the preceding article in this series. Over the longer term, however, the earnings gap between white Americans and most minority...

2015 Earnings Finally Surpass Pre-Great Recession Levels

by | Oct 5, 2016

Median earnings among Americans have finally exceeded pre-Great Recession levels, according to 2015 data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 Current Population Survey (CPS), thanks to strong growth from 2014 to 2015. Growth in earnings was a major contributor to the...

Billions in Tax Revenue Lost Through Foreign Tax Havens

by | Oct 3, 2016

U.S. corporations have stashed profits totaling trillions of dollars in offshore tax havens, potentially avoiding billions in federal taxes, according to a new report issued by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF). States also lose...