As much economic inequality as there is in the United States overall,
CEOs are their own special category of inequality, a new EPI report shows:
- Over the last three decades, CEO compensation grew far faster than that of other highly paid workers, those earning more than 99.9 percent of other wage earners. CEO compensation in 2012 was 4.75 times greater than that of the top 0.1 percent of wage earners, a ratio 1.5 higher than the 3.25 ratio that prevailed over the 1947–1979 period (this wage gain is equivalent to the wages of 1.5 high wage earners).
- Also over the last three decades, CEO compensation increased further relative to other very high wage earners than the wages of college graduates grew relative to those of high school graduates.
- That CEO pay grew far faster than pay of the top 0.1 percent of wage earners indicates that CEO compensation growth does not simply reflect the increased market value of highly paid professionals in a competitive market for skills (the “market for talent”) but reflects the presence of substantial rents embedded in executive pay (meaning CEO pay does not reflect greater productivity of executives). Consequently, if CEOs earned less or were taxed more, there would be no adverse impact on output or employment.
Continue reading below the fold for more of the week's education and labor news.
Education
- Well, this figures. One of the key statistics that a California judge relied on in striking down teacher tenure laws was a total guess:
Or a “guesstimate,” as David Berliner, the expert witness Treu quoted, explained to me when I called him on Wednesday. It’s not based on any specific data, or any rigorous research about California schools in particular. “I pulled that out of the air,” says Berliner, an emeritus professor of education at Arizona State University. “There’s no data on that. That’s just a ballpark estimate, based on my visiting lots and lots of classrooms.” He also never used the words “grossly ineffective.”
- States that spent less on education to begin with have made bigger school cuts.
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- Is there a silver lining to the Vergara decision?
A fair day's wage
- Unexpected: Target is telling some of its contractors to meet with unions.
- Where will the minimum wage be on the ballot in November?
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- Low-wage industry lobby groups are gonna oppose higher wages. Wednesday:
... the International Franchise Association, a DC-based lobbying organization that protects the interests of beloved local small businesses like McDonald's, Taco Bell, Dunkin' Donuts, and Dairy Queen, filed a lawsuit in US District Court to block Seattle's $15 minimum wage law. They say it "illegally discriminates against franchisees," since any national brand with more than 500 employees is considered a "large business" under the new law, and must scale up to the $15 wage on a faster schedule, in 3 to 4 years.
- Workers at the newest casino in Atlantic City have unionized.
- Booming business, but falling wages, in California grocery stores.
- A fucking good question from Dean Baker: Why do coal mining jobs matter so much more than jobs lost to trade?
- Nearly $5 million in back pay for 500 workers:
MDG Design & Construction LLC has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor that resolves wage violations at the federally assisted Grand Street Guild construction project in New York City's Lower East Side. MDG and other respondents will pay $3.8 million in back wages and fringe benefits to about 200 of MDG's subcontractors' construction workers. Previous, separate investigations led to the repayment of more than $1.1 million in back wages to approximately 300 laborers and mechanics who worked for MDG's subcontractors on the Lower East Side project.
MDG was the general contractor for the Grand Street Guild project, which involved the refurbishment and rehabilitation of three 26-story apartment towers. The department's Wage and Hour Division found numerous Davis-Bacon and Related Acts violations by MDG subcontractors on the project, including failure to pay required prevailing wages and submitting inaccurate or falsified payroll records to the government.
- Amazon warehouse worker death sparks OSHA investigation
- Discussions of human trafficking tend to revolve around sexual trafficking, but trafficking can mean un-sexy things like cheap shrimp, as you'll see in this Benedict Cumberbatch-narrated video.