Pay The GhostMovie | 2015
NOTE 1. Commissioned officers in pay grades O-7 through O-10 during calendar year 2015 will be frozen at 2014 levels and capped at the rate of pay for level II of the Executive Schedule that was in effect during 2014.
Pay the GhostMovie | 2015
An employee who, on or after July 1, 2015, works in California for 30 or more days within a year from the beginning of employment, is entitled to paid sick leave. Employees, including part-time and temporary employees, will earn at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Accrual begins on the first day of employment or July 1, 2015, whichever is later.
Unfortunately, although inflation-adjusted wages grew across the board in 2015 (due to a sharp dip in inflation), the trend of rising wage inequality continued unabated last year. This paper begins by detailing the most up-to-date hourly wage trends through 2015 and then examines the continued growth in inequality that began in the late 1970s. This rising inequality is confirmed by the latest wage data, analyzed across the wage distribution and education categories, including striking differences by race and gender.
At the same time that private-sector average hourly nominal wages grew 2.2 percent between 2014 and 2015, overall inflation fell from 1.6 percent between 2013 and 2014 to only 0.1 percent between 2014 and 2015. This is shown in Table 1, which displays a variety of measures of nominal wage growth, inflation, and real wage growth. (For this discussion, private-sector average nominal wage growth is used, shown in the first row; however, other data sets show similar wage trends.)
Note: Changes were calculated from the latter end of each year (i.e., monthly data were calculated from December 2014 to December 2015; quarterly calculated from 2014Q4 to 2015Q4; semiannual calculated from second half 2014 to second half 2015).
Taken together, these nominal wage growth and inflation trends mean that real (inflation-adjusted) average wages grew 2.1 percent between 2014 and 2015. From a historical perspective, this is a relatively healthy rate of real wage growth. For example, real hourly wage growth for the bottom 90 percent of workers averaged less than 0.5 percent annually since 1979 (Bivens et al. 2014).
The benefits of non-zero inflation are recognized by the Federal Reserve, which targets 2.0 percent price inflation. The Federal Reserve relies on nominal wage growth as its essential measure to determine whether there are pressures from accelerating wage growth that might push inflation above its target. So far, the data are clear on this question. While private-sector hourly wages saw a slight rise throughout 2015 (EPI 2016a), any signs of acceleration in real wages between 2014 and 2015 are driven by the sharp dip in inflation in 2015, and not by nominal wage acceleration. The wage and price data over the past year reinforce that the Fed acted too soon by raising rates in December, and that real wage gains in 2015 are not evidence of an economy that has achieved genuine full employment.
Figure B illustrates the trends in wages for select deciles (and the 95th percentile), showing the cumulative change in real hourly wages between 2007 and 2015. Although the increases from 2014 to 2015 are primarily due to low inflation and not accelerating nominal wage growth (as previously discussed), the inequality story is clear. The lines clearly demonstrate that those with the highest wages have had the fastest wage growth in recent years. This trend continued quite clearly between 2014 and 2015. By 2015, the 95/10 ratio grew to 6.3 from 5.9 in 2007 and 5.5 in 2000. Similar trends are found in the 95/50 wage ratio, with those at the top pulling away.
While the data discussed here clearly show a continuation of increasing wage inequality between 2014 and 2015, the CPS-ORG does not allow analysis of wage trends within the top 5 percent of the wage distribution. Using Social Security wage data through 2014, it can be shown that the top 1 percent grew 149.4 percent, while the bottom 90 percent grew only 16.7 percent since 1979 (Mishel and Kimball 2015).
Figure E displays in green the states with legislated minimum-wage increases in 2015, while those in blue had automatic increases resulting from indexing the minimum wage to inflation. While the range of indexed increases ($0.12 to $1.25) is larger than legislated increases ($0.25 to $1.00), the average (unweighted) increases were in states with legislated increases ($0.77 versus $0.28).
Table 4 examines wage deciles (and the 95th percentile wage) for white non-Hispanic, black non-Hispanic, and Hispanic workers between 2000 and 2015. Between 2014 and 2015, white wage growth was at least as fast as black wage growth at all deciles, and was far stronger at the top than the middle or bottom. Median white wages are now at the same level they were eight years ago, and have only grown 0.3 percent annually since 2000. In 2015, wages for the bottom 60 percent of black workers are still lower than in 2000.
Between 2014 and 2015, Hispanic wage growth was more broadly based. In fact, Hispanic wage growth was faster in the bottom half than the top half of the Hispanic wage distribution. The faster wage growth at the 10th and 20th percentiles from 2000 to 2015 for Hispanic workers greatly exceeded that of similarly low-earning black workers, who actually experienced losses over that period. The differential was so great that the lowest-earning Hispanic workers now have higher wages than the lowest-earning black workers.
The bottom half of Table 3 displays wage disparities, comparing black and Hispanic wages as a share of white wages at each decile of their respective wage distributions. Compared with white workers, black workers have been losing ground, with increasing racial wage gaps across the entire distribution. At the median in 2000, black wages were 79.4 percent of white wages. By 2015, they were only 74.8 percent of white wages. Conversely, Hispanic workers have been slowly closing the gap with white workers at the lower end of the wage distribution. Regardless of race or ethnicity, within-group inequality has risen since 2000, with stronger growth at the top than at the middle or bottom.
Overall, 2015 saw overall real wage gains driven by a dip in inflation. It also saw a pronounced increase in wage inequality. Larger gains in real wages were clearly concentrated at the top of wage distributions, with the exception of 10th percentile gains associated with state-level minimum-wage increases. Growth was faster for male workers and white workers, particularly at the top of the wage distribution, which continued to exacerbate racial, ethnic, and gender wage gaps. Wages for those with additional schooling remain higher than those with less, though the college premium has remained fairly stable over the last few years.
Gould, Elise, and Alyssa Davis. 2015. Closing the Pay Gap and Beyond: A Comprehensive Strategy for Improving Economic Security for Women and Families. Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper No. 412.
Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos have agreed on a new contract for the 2015 season in which the five-time NFL MVP will take a $4 million pay cut to provide more cash for the team to do business on the free-agent market, which opens with the new league year Tuesday.
"I don't talk about my contract. I never have in 18 years and I'm not going to start now," Manning told the Denver Post Wednesday afternoon. "I've been working real hard and I'm excited to be back with the Denver Broncos. Can't wait for April 13 to get here when the team can finally come together. I'm excited to get to work and get to know the new coaches and looking forward to trying to make 2015 a special year."
Manning informed Broncos general manager John Elway on Feb. 12 that he was physically and mentally prepared to play the 2015 season after undergoing a comprehensive workout regimen and evaluation with noted performance trainer Mackie Shilstone.
Peyton Manning's new deal will reportedly pay him $15 million in base salary for the 2015 season, which is sixth among quarterbacks. His original base salary of $19 million would have been the most in the NFL for the 2015 season.
When first conducted in 2012, the Diary showed that cash was the most frequently used payment instrument and that cash use was prevalent across all demographic groups. The key findings of the 2015 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice are similar and suggest that:
The 2015 results also show that cash is facing competition from other payment instruments. In 2015, 32 percent of consumer transactions were made with cash, compared with 40 percent in 2012. Growing consumer comfort with payment cards and the growth of online commerce, among other factors, contribute to this trend. Nonetheless, a broad range of results suggests that cash remains resilient and continues to play a key and unique role for consumers.
In 2015, cash remained the most frequently used retail payment instrument, used in nearly one-third (32 percent) of all transactions, including bill payments (Figure 3). Consumers used debit cards for 27 percent of their transactions, followed by credit cards for 21 percent of transactions. Electronic payments (e.g. ACH transfers and online bill pay) and checks comprised a small share of transaction volume, though the value of these payments tended to be higher than cash, debit, or credit payments.
Fundamentally, consumer preferences and shopping behavior appear to have changed as consumers increasingly use non-cash payment instruments. Fewer people cited cash as their preferred payment instrument (see Insight 1 below), and consumers are increasing the amount of shopping they do online or through remote platforms. The share of transactions that took place online or remotely increased to 10 percent in 2015, up from 6 percent in 2012.
The 2015 Diary also asked participants whether merchants required a minimum purchase before accepting a payment card. Most participants either did not encounter a minimum purchase requirement or did not know whether a minimum purchase was required, suggesting that the presence or absence of a minimum was not an issue for that transaction. In all spending categories, 89 percent or more of transactions took place without requiring a minimum. Even for small-value transactions, required minimums did not appear to drive cash use. 041b061a72