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** Schools are still segregated, and black children are paying a price ([link removed])
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Schools remain heavily segregated by race and ethnicity, despite the Supreme Court declaring "separate but equal” to be unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, more than 60 years ago. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), EPI Economist Emma García finds ([link removed]) that black students perform better, on average, on standardized tests, when they have the opportunity to attend schools with lower concentrations of poverty and larger shares of white students. Black children, however, are more likely to attend highly segregated schools and high-poverty schools than white children. Read the report » ([link removed])
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** Schools are still segregated, and black children are paying a price
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** Number of striking workers surged in 2018 and 2019 ([link removed])
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After decades of declining strike activity, data on major work stoppages ([link removed]) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics—including new 2019 data released this week—show that there was a substantial upsurge in 2018 and 2019, with 485,200 workers involved in major work stoppages in 2018 and 425,500 workers involved in major stoppages in 2019—together they make up the largest two-year average in 35 years. In 2017, only 25,300 workers were involved in work stoppages. Work stoppages are primarily composed of striking workers. Read the press release » ([link removed])


** How are Virginia public-sector workers faring? ([link removed]) [link removed]
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As the state considers restoring bargaining rights to public-sector workers, new EPI research ([link removed]) by economist Monique Morrissey finds that Virginia’s public-sector workforce is undercompensated relative to their private-sector counterparts. Although a majority of public-sector workers in Virginia have bachelor’s or advanced degrees, they earn less, on average, than private-sector workers, most of whom do not have college degrees. Taking into account education, experience, hours worked and other factors, public-sector workers earn 18.3%–20.8%.less than their private-sector counterparts. Although factoring in benefits narrows the gap, total compensation is 11.7%–14.4% lower for public-sector workers than for their private-sector counterparts in Virginia. Read the press release » ([link removed])


** AAPI women face a double pay penalty for race and gender ([link removed])
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Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) Equal Pay Day was February 11. It marked the number of days into 2020 that AAPI women have to work to make the same amount as their white male counterparts were paid in 2019. Put another way, the average AAPI woman needs to work almost an extra month and a half to make up for the shortfall in annual earnings relative to the average non-Hispanic white man. Read the blog post » ([link removed])


** EPI and the Center for Economic and Policy Research co-hosted a lunch at EPI to discuss Jeff Madrick’s book ([link removed])
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Jeff Madrick’s new book, Invisible Americans: The Tragic Cost of Child Poverty ([link removed]) , outlines the scale of child poverty and argues for a “monthly, substantial, and unconditional cash allowance” to the families of parents with children. Attendees at the event included tax, budget, and anti-poverty experts from The Century Foundation, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Children’s Defense Fund, Coalition on Human Needs, Community Change, Congressional Progressive Caucus Center, First Focus on Children, Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Urban Institute, National Partnership for Women and Families, National Women’s Law Center, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Read about the book » ([link removed])


** EPI is co-sponsoring EconCon 2020 ([link removed])
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EPI and nine other progressive organizations, led by the Groundwork Collaborative, are co-sponsoring EconCon 2020 ([link removed]) , a two-day conference to take place in Washington, D.C., on March 26 and 27. Keynote speakers include Senator Sherrod Brown ([link removed]) , Philadelphia Councilmember Helen Gym ([link removed]) , and author, professor, and sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom ([link removed]) . The conference will feature a panel organized by EPI that will focus on four economic issues that the conservative narrative consistently gets wrong: robots, race, unions, and the minimum wage. You can see a list of sessions and speakers here ([link removed]) . Register for the conference » ([link removed])


** EPI in the news
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CNN ([link removed]) quoted an EPI blog post ([link removed]) on Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) Equal Pay Day, which marked February 11 as the number of days into 2020 that AAPI women would have to work to earn the same wage as their white male counterparts in 2019. | Asian American and Pacific Islander Women Have to Work This Far Into the Year to Earn the Same Amount That White Men Earned In 2019 » ([link removed])
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New York Magazine’s Intelligencer ([link removed]) cited an EPI report ([link removed]) on labor strikes, which states that there was an upsurge in major strike activity in 2018 and 2019. | More Americans Are Going on Strike » ([link removed])
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In an analysis fact-checking President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, The New York Times ([link removed]) cited EPI research on surging CEO compensation ([link removed]) . | Fact-Checking Trump’s 2020 State of the Union Address and the Democratic Response » ([link removed])
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EPI Senior Economist Robert Scott joined a panel of experts on Al Jazeera’s “The Bottom Line,” ([link removed]) where he discussed ([link removed]) the economic impact of the coronavirus and its effect on China’s position in the world. | Coronavirus: What Do We Know So Far? » ([link removed])
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** What we're reading
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** VA Democrats Kill Pro-Union Bill After Learning CEOs Oppose It ([link removed])
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Virginia isn’t for workers. Old Dominion is currently one of only three states to explicitly bar ([link removed]) all public-sector employees from bargaining collectively. Read more » ([link removed])

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** Still Conning After All These Years ([link removed])
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Way back in 2003 I published an article in the Times magazine titled “The tax-cut con ([link removed]) ,” in which I described what was already a well-established Republican strategy of bait-and-switch. Read more » ([link removed])

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** Democracy Drives Labor in a Hyper-Capitalist City ([link removed])
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HONG KONG—Angel was scrolling through the messaging app Telegram late last year when she saw a notice advertising a new union for health-care employees; her interest was piqued. Read more » ([link removed])

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EPI News: Strikes surge despite low unemployment
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