Wages

The vast majority of American households’ income comes from what workers receive in their paychecks – which is why wages are so important. Unfortunately, wages for most workers grew exceptionally slowly between 1979 and 2012, despite productivity—which essentially measures the economy’s potential for providing rising living standards for all—rising 64 percent. In other words, most Americans, even those with college degrees, have only been treading water—despite working more productively (and being better educated) than ever.

EARN groups provide key research and policy analysis describing how these trends have played out at the state and local levels, and what policymakers can do about it.

Publications

Equal Pay and Opportunity: A step toward fair wages for women and better workplaces for all

  • April 12, 2016
  • Marilyn Watkins, Sam Hatzenbeler

From high-profile CEOs and movie stars to healthcare and retail workers, men consistently make more than women. Social scientists and economists have found clear evidence that gender-based discrimination persists – and is so deeply ingrained in culture and practice that it often goes unrecognized. Ensuring that all employees have the right to discuss and ask about pay and job opportunities, and that anti-discrimination laws are effectively enforced, will benefit women, families, businesses, and our state economy.

Women Still Paid Less Than Men: Oregon’s Gender Pay Gap

  • April 11, 2016
  • Staff Report

Like the rest of the nation, Oregon has a gender pay gap: the typical woman in Oregon earns about 82 cents for every dollar that a man earns. The causes for why the typical woman earns less are complex. To some extent, the gap reflects the fact that she still serves as the family’s principal caretaker — the vital work of raising kids, caring for an elderly parent or caring for a family member who has fallen ill. Those duties take her out of the workforce. The gap also reflects, in part, that employers have not valued the labor of women as highly as the labor of men. Indeed, it too reflects the persistence of gender discrimination.

There are steps that Oregon policymakers can take to even the playing field. These include investing in affordable, quality child care to expand access; requiring paid family leave for all workers; strengthening fair pay standards; and ensuring that workers can count on predictable work schedules. By helping eliminate the gender pay gap, lawmakers can increase the economic security of Oregon families and advance gender equity.

Upstate-Downstate Wage Differentials are Relatively Small in Low-Wage Occupations

In the course of the debate about raising the minimum wage in New York State, it has sometimes been said that since wages are much lower in upstate areas that a phased-in $15 minimum wage is untenable there. However, this argument is made using overall median wage levels that are subject to distortion by the presence of a large number of high-wage jobs in the downstate area. When an upstate-downstate comparison is made using wages on a detailed occupational basis for the low-wage occupations (like retail salespersons, cashiers or stock clerks) that would be affected by a higher minimum wage, the pattern shows a fairly high degree of uniformity in wage levels across New York State.