Income Inequality

This Price Is Right -- About Reducing CEO Pay So Companies Can Pay More to Their Lowest Paid

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on April 20, 2015 7:57 pm

Posted in:

No, not Keystone Research Center labor economist Mark Price. Dan Price. CEO and owner of Gravity Payments, a credit card processing company in Seattle. Although the two men do kind of look alike.

Fight for $15 - and the Birth of the Next American Middle Class

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on April 15, 2015 12:00 pm

Posted in:

Today, low-wage worker protests across Pennsylvania, the nation, and the globe will reach their greatest scale yet.

Mobilizing behind a demand for "$15 and a union," this swelling movement holds the key to the future of opportunity and the middle class in America.

OK, So It's Not the Swimsuit Issue...But Mark Price Made SI (Sports Illustrated)

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on March 15, 2015 3:58 pm

Posted in:

This may be a first for an economist. A map based on a report by our very own Mark Price -- the Increasingly Unequal States of America -- made the Sports Illustrated blog at the end of last week. Fortunately, it was not accompanied by a picture of Mark on the beach during his recent work-related trips (yes, plural) to Miami.

Add new comment

Making Work Pay Coalition Forms to Help Working Families

Posted by Jeff Garis on February 3, 2015 1:17 pm

Posted in:

More than two dozen advocacy and direct-service organizations from across the commonwealth, including the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, have united to champion measures to help working families care for their children and get ahead.

Tens of thousands of hard-working, low-wage earners in Pennsylvania – such as domestic care providers, fast food employees, and retail workers – struggle every day to provide for their families. Despite steady income and long workdays, many of these families still have trouble making ends meet.

Pa.'s Tax System Grows More Unfair: Low-Income Pay Price

Posted by Anonymous on January 16, 2015 12:38 pm

Posted in:

Pennsylvania often falls near the bottom of state rankings – for instance, 47^th in job growth and 48^th in funding for public higher education per capita. So, at first blush, it might seem like good news this week that the commonwealth came in sixth place for something. Unfortunately, it’s in a ranking of how unfair states’ tax systems are.

For Pa. School Districts, the Rich Get Richer & the Poor Get Poorer

Posted by Waslala Miranda on January 9, 2015 6:50 pm

Posted in:

According to an Associated Press analysis, the gap between the haves and have-nots in public schools grew much worse during Gov.

Why Triad Strategies is Wrong on Ride Sharing

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on July 9, 2014 9:43 pm

Posted in:

Our recent blog on 'the Non-Sharing Economy' prompted a response from Roy Wells at Triad Strategies. Triad is the Harrisburg lobbying and public relations firm secured by Lyft to make the case that its services should not be subject to the same rules that govern cabs. We appreciate Roy's weighing in and giving us the opportunity for a deeper back-and-forth.

CEO Pay in America: Up Up And Away!

Posted by Natalie Sabadish on June 13, 2014 1:52 pm

Posted in:

According to recently-released data, CEOs and executives in the United States have been recovering well since the end of the recession, while most workers are being left even further behind. The Economic Policy Institute released a study today documenting compensation in 2013 for CEOs at the top 350 firms in the United States. Their data is especially valuable because it provides a consistent historical series of CEO pay trends back to 1965.

In 2013, compensation for the average CEO (using a measure that includes the value of stock options that were realized during the year) was $15.2 million, an increase of 2.8 percent over the year and more than 20 percent since 2010[1].

Pittsburgh Again on the Forefront of Labor Innovation to Build the Next Middle Class

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on June 10, 2014 1:11 pm

Posted in:

WESA in Pittsburgh has a radio feature airing today on union organizing among contingent faculty in higher education. It includes some excerpts from an interview with me. You can listen to it and access a transcript here.

Policy Matters: Piketty and "Two Critical Realignments" in One Graph

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on May 28, 2014 7:28 pm

Posted in:

Our friend Colin Gordon of the Iowa Policy Project runs a website called The Telltale Chart. As the name implies, he loves charts.

Colin's outdone himself today on the blog of the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) with what he calls "Piketty in one graph."

Third and State