EEOC proposes to collect pay data by race and gender starting in 2017

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is proposing to collect pay and hours worked data by gender and race. The reporting would start in 2017.

You can read the full change of the proposed regulation here:

Proposed revision of the employer information report (EEO-1)

The regulatory change would add collection of W-2 pay range information and hours to the current reporting of employment by gender and race. The EEO-1 reporting regulations cover government contracting firms with more than 50 employees and private firms more than 100 workers.

Evil Black Economists comments on EEOC proposal to collect pay data

We supported the EEOC change to collect in a public comment.

https://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EEOC-2016-0002-0060


And the comment itself...

Hooray for the EEOC!! They are finally taking steps to get the American people the "missing" data on compensation. This action will fill an important data gap in our understanding of pay inequality.

The United States has a large and persistent pay gap between men and women and whites and minorities. The pay gap in the US has remained in place for many years. Legislation was passed but pay differences have barely changed. We need better data and tools to eliminate this gap. Knowledge is power

As a long time computer professional who has worked on HR and ERP systems: the electronic data is there, easily accessible and can be reported in excel with minimal effort. If I have less than 100 employees, I would dump the data into excel and file electronically. If I have my own HRIS system, then I would extend the EEOC-1 report with more data to meet EEOC-2 requirements. In addition, Payroll companies like ADP and Paychex, could produce the report.

I support the proposed EEOC reporting change because it would help us better understand the scope and scale of pay differences in the United States.

A lot of the arguments against the proposal fall into three groups:

1. It's too hard to get the data. It's too burdensome. 

The EEOC is trying collect data in an area where there is no data at all. They are trying to shed light on an important issue in our society. Helping to resolve the issue in the US is worth a couple of extra hours.

2. EEOC-2 won't provide the information the EEOC is looking for. Data does not include education, experience, level, location, etc. which can affect pay.

Researchers, academics and policy makers have nothing right now, nothing, so any data is an improvement.

3. The EEOC is unclear about the definition of pay / salary / total compensation

The salary bands provided are very wide and leave lots of room for estimation. 

4. We don't want to expose our company to any liability for unequal pay. 

This one I cannot help you with. 

American business should think about what's good for America. (Sorry Calvin Coolidge) 

Minimum Wage: Classic paper from Card and Kurger finds no reduced employment due to raising the minimum wage

Here is the classic paper from 1993 by David Card and Alan B. Kruger that could not find a link between raising the minimum wage and reduced employment.

Minimum Wages and Employment by Card and Kruger, 1993

In fact, during the time period measured, employment actually expanded.

Bring Back Welfare by Annie Lowrey in the New Yorker

Annie Lowrey writes about the failure of welfare polices in the US and the need for a social safety net to keep people out of poverty.

Bring Welfare Back in the New Yorker

As always read the comments.  They give you the truth about what people think about the issue. Most comments classist and racist opinions about giving people something for "free." Very few discuss the article topic or poverty.

Note: The Evil Black Economist has long supported a social safety net of jobs, healthcare, free education and guaranteed basic income.

Robert Gordon: The US economy will stink for decades to come for the 99%

Robert Gordon's predicts closet to zero growth for the 99% for decades. He also concludes the structure of the economy has changed and innovation will slow to a crawl. 

Robert Gordon is predicting that economic growth for 99% of the population in the US will be below 1/2 of 1% for 99% of the population. Yes things are going to stink for a generation 

Robert Gordon: End of US Economic Growth

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-Fall-American-Growth/dp/0691147728

If you remember Piketty, this paper and book are almost as big.   All the top, public economists are taking this pretty seriously: Summers(Center), Krugman (left) and Edward Glaeser (right) have all reviewed the book and supported it's conclusions

Here is the best summary

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/02/24/qa-why-robert-gordon-thinks-growth-is-over-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/

A short summary here

http://www.cepr.org/sites/default/files/policy_insights/PolicyInsight63.pdf

Here is original paper from NBER

http://www.nber.org/papers/w18315.pdf

WSJ review

http://www.wsj.com/articles/those-were-the-daysthe-problem-of-growth-1452889499

NYT review

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/books/review/the-powers-that-were.html?_r=0

A couple of old TED talks

https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_gordon_the_death_of_innovation_the_end_of_growth?language=en

2016 Economic Report of the President

The 2016 Economic report of the President and the council of economic Advisers was released on Monday, February 22nd, 2016.

Each year the president releases his view of the economy called the economic report of the president. It just an all around top notch piece of macroeconomic work.

There is good coverage of inequality in the economy and support for early childhood education.

For me the biggest thing I learned was how cruel the republican fiscal cuts were during the recession. They cut spending about 5% during the height of the recession at the federal and state level.

2016 Economic Report of the President 

You can view past reports here

Past Economic Reports

White workers have 5 times the retirement savings as Black workers

The Economic Policy Institute has analyzed retirement savings data and concluded that Black workers retirements savings are one fifth of White savings.

White workers have 5 times the retirement savings of Black Workers

Reparations for US Slavery

The case for reparations for slavery in the US has become a news item in the US presidential campaign.  Bernie Sanders said he does not believe in reparations and squelched any discussion as "divisive" in an interview with Fusion.net.  The news generated headlines.

Reparations is clearly a Black economic issue, so we though we would look close at some of the popular articles on reparations. All articles are neutral or pro-reparations and all agree actual reparations are impossible. Most articles support studying the issue.

The Evil Black Economist supports a comprehensive study of the economic damage slavery, segregation and jim-crow discrimination did to Black people in the US between 1800 and 1960.

To start, here is nice summary of the issue in a one page format: Reparations for Slavery by Constitution Rights Center

One of the most comprehensive cases made for reparations is the article by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  He has almost single-handedly put the issue into the political discourse.  Everyone should read his article.

The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic

Reparations are Owed by Jamelle Bouie in Slate

US Slaves worth more than all industrial capital by Mathew Yglesais in Slate who quote the most interesting chart from Piketty and Zucman's paper on Capital including the value of US slaves.

A bill to study reparations has been introduced in every session since 1989 by Representative John Conyers of MIchigan.

Jamaica calls on UK to pay reparations by Rowena Mason in The Guardian

William A Darity of Duke university wrote a paper in 2008 called 40 Acres and a Mule in the 21st Century which looks at some of the issue involved.  The paper summarizes the estimated monetary damages. It also disucsses the lack of popular support.


and of course

Dave Chapelle on Reparations

The Center on Education and the Workforce released a report showing the Blacks tend to choose low paying college majors.  African Americans are over represented in the social service majors such as  and under represented in science and technology majors

African American college majors and earnings.

Harberger Triangle: Deadweight Loss

We had to to go back to our basic Econ 101 supply and demand graphs to better understand how taxes and subsidies can cause market inefficiencies. Here is a basic model in excel.

Excel File

There are lots of resources on the web for Harberger Triangles.

Here is one of them

NBER paper on Harberger Triangles