Wage growth among African-American workers has taken a double hit since 1979 due to the growing black-white wage gap and overall wage stagnation, according to a new paper from the Economic Policy Institute.
The left-leaning think tank finds that median hourly wages for black workers “could be 87 percent higher in the absence of racial and class inequality.”
Researchers examined the 1979 to 2015 time period, during which “overall median wages did not track productivity growth and racial wage gaps did not close, but instead widened.”
“This kept wage growth for black workers much, much lower than it would have been otherwise,” the report adds.
New research from the Economic Policy Institute shows that African-American workers earn less than their white counterparts regardless of educational attainment. Progress Illinois looks at the report and gets reaction from the Chicago Urban League.
Racial wage gaps are wider today than in 1979 due largely to discrimination and growing income inequality, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute.
The average wage gap between black and white workers was 18.1 percent in 1979, with the gap widening to 26.7 percent in 2015, the left-leaning think tank reports.
Rutgers University economist William M. Rodgers III co-authored the report with Valerie Wilson, director of EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy.
“We’ve found that racial wage gaps are growing primarily due to discrimination — and other unmeasured and unobserved characteristics– along with rising inequality in general,” Rodgers said.
CEOs at America’s largest firms received an average of $15.5 million in compensation last year, meaning they earned 276 times more than the typical worker in 2015, new research shows.
The $15.5 million in average CEO compensation was down about 5 percent from 2014, when the figure was $16.3 million, and up 46.5 percent since the economic recovery began in 2009, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
“Most (83 percent) of the decline in CEO pay from 2014 to 2015 can be explained by the drop in the value of realized stock options in that period,” EPI’s report reads. “Therefore the decline in compensation does not reflect any structural change in how CEO compensation is set or changes in corporate governance. CEO compensation will likely resume its upward trajectory when the stock market resumes upward movement.”
A group of Chicago aldermen proposed a package of ordinances Wednesday to generate revenue for the city’s cash-strapped public schools.
The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district has a $300 million budget gap, and schools are reportedly facing a 7 percent funding cut in the upcoming academic year.
“We’ve received some money from the state, but it’s just not enough,” Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) said at a press conference before the council meeting with fellow aldermen, the Chicago Teachers Union and other education advocates.
“We need to find more progressive and more viable solutions to increase revenue so that all of our schools can be adequately financed, so that we can give quality teachers an opportunity to teach in our schools,” he continued. “When I had a conversation with a principal yesterday, she was perplexed that she could not hire a 20-plus year veteran school teacher because she could not afford it. That’s not right.”
SEIU Healthcare Illinois officials say the state’s Child Care Assistance Program is now serving 55,000 fewer children because of budget cuts made by the Rauner administration.
Racial wage gaps are wider today than in 1979 due largely to discrimination and growing income inequality, according to 
CEOs at America’s largest firms received an average of $15.5 million in compensation last year, meaning they earned 276 times more than the typical worker in 2015, 
A group of Chicago aldermen proposed a package of ordinances Wednesday to generate revenue for the city’s cash-strapped public schools.
