If you’ve been in the workforce since 1979, how much have your wages gone up? If you’re a little younger, how much have the wages for a job like yours gone up in those years? I bet it’s not 157.8%—unless, of course, you’re in the top 1%.
By contrast, wages for the bottom 90% grew by 23.9% between 1979 and 2018, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis. The top 1% still lags one group, though, and that’s the top 0.1%, which saw its wages rise by 340.7% in those years.
This is economic inequality in action, and it’s reshaped the economy. “The bottom 90% earned 69.8% of all earnings in 1979 but only 61.0% in 2018. In contrast the top 1.0% increased its share of earnings from 7.3% in 1979 to 13.3% in 2018, a near-doubling,” EPI’s Lawrence Mishel and Melat Kassa write. “The growth of wages for the top 0.1% is the major dynamic driving the top 1.0% earnings as the top 0.1% more than tripled its earnings share from 1.6% in 1979 to 5.1% in 2018.”
● It’s been a month since the contract they fought for went into effect, but Chicago teachers still haven't gotten the raises they won.
● Harvard graduate students remain on strike after more than two weeks, even as the Trump National Labor Relations Board threatens the union rights of graduate students everywhere. The students and the university have made some headway in negotiations, but Harvard is still dragging its feet on a living wage and reasonable healthcare expenses in a very expensive place to live. Harvard’s endowment, by the way, is nearly $41 billion. With a B.
● University of Wisconsin nurses, who lost their union five years ago thanks to then-Gov. Scott Walker, are demanding union recognition once again.
● Hundreds of Instacart workers went back out on strike after the company messed with their tips yet again.
● PATCO in 22 minutes.
● A round-up of what's going on with labor in the states.
● Most dangerous time to work in Amazon warehouses? Right about now.
● The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has rolled back a policy against forced arbitration, a handy tactic for companies to keep workers who’ve suffered discrimination from getting their day in court.