Unfortunately, public employees have been excluded from federal labor law, which means their collective bargaining rights vary greatly from state to state. And in recent years, many state legislatures have attacked public employees and their unions. 🧵4/6
But ✨ unions✨ help close the public-sector pay gap. In states with strong bargaining rights, the gap was 💥 5-8 percentage points less 💥 than in states with weak or no bargaining rights. 🧵3/6
Nationally, the public-sector pay gap has widened ↔️ since the pandemic. Why does this matter? Because schools, hospitals, and other public employers are having trouble hiring for essential services. This causes staffing shortages that negatively impact our communities 🏙️. 🧵2/6
State and local government employees earned, on average, 17.6% less ⬇️ than similarly educated private-sector employees, according to new research from EPI's Monique Morrissey and Jen Sherer. But unions help shrink this gap: 🧵1/6 www.epi.org/publication/...
Public-sector employees earn less than their private-sector counterparts, and that pay gap has widened in recent years. The pay gap is narrower in states where public employees have stronger collectiv...
Closing the teacher pay gap is "a question of political will, with profound implications for our children, their families and communities, and the future of our nation," says Sylvia Allegretto. 🧵4/4 www.epi.org/publication/...
Despite a small improvement of 1.7% in teachers’ average weekly wages, the relative pay penalty between public school teachers and college graduates in other professions remains large.
Teacher quality is the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement. Closing the growing pay gap between teachers and other professionals is critical to ensuring the quality of public education in the US. 🧵3/4
On average, teachers earned 73.4 cents for every dollar relative to the earnings of similar professionals in 2023. Check out your state's teacher pay penalty on the map below: 🧵2/3
Back to school? More like back to cruel (-ly underpaid teachers). In 2023, teachers made 26.6% less than other similarly educated professionals—the lowest level since 1960, according to our new teacher pay gap report with CEPR by Sylvia Allegretto. 🧵1/4 www.epi.org/publication/...
Despite a small improvement of 1.7% in teachers’ average weekly wages, the relative pay penalty between public school teachers and college graduates in other professions remains large.
Lower rates will not just keep today’s excellent labor market from undesirably softening. They will also help make investments in housing and clean energy more viable and grow faster in coming years, which are both hugely important goals. 🧵5/5 www.epi.org/blog/the-lab...
Two things are true right now for the U.S. economy: The labor market is extraordinarily strong when judged by any historical benchmark. The Federal Reserve is behind the curve in cutting i...
In short, we have a strong labor market that is also not inflationary. This means interest rates should be much closer to neutral levels than they are today. 🧵4/5