In January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), under the direction of Mick Mulvaney, dropped a lawsuit against a payday lending company with a history of charging up to 950 percent interest on small-dollar loans. This move is part of the interim director’s strategic plan to deregulate and defang the consumer agency, which he repeatedly criticized as a congressman.
The president’s recently released budget proposes steep cuts to non-defense discretionary spending, which includes housing, education, infrastructure, food assistance, and other investments critical for working families. Over the next ten years, the budget would reduce Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by nearly 30 percent, cancel housing vouchers for roughly 200,000 households, and cut support for income assistance and work programs for families with children.
Despite Republican assurances that corporate tax cuts would generate wage increases for workers, the evidence so far shows that it is shareholders, not workers, who are realizing the vast majority of gains from tax reform.
The Congressional Research Service released a study of wage trends since 1979, showing that not all Americans have been sharing in the economic growth of recent decades. Workers in the middle and bottom-end of the wage distribution have seen real wages stagnate or even fall, while most of the wage growth has concentrated at the top. The report also dives into demographic trends in wages and wage growth, and shows that wages for those without college degrees, in particular, have been falling for much of the period.
The black-white wealth gap is staggering, and has dire implications for families across the country. The median net worth of a white household is $171,000 while the median net worth of a black household is $17,600. Wealth helps families weather economic downturns and periods of unemployment, prepare for retirement, launch new businesses, and set up future generations for success. There are likely many factors influencing this disparity, including the racial wage gap, discriminatory housing and housing-finance practices that lead to lower rates of homeownership, and less access to financial institutions and tools. This Black History Month, the Trump administration should be coming up with a plan to tackle this problem rather than taking credit for years-long trends in the racial unemployment gap.
In 2017, nearly 80 percent of Americans reported that they were concerned about their ability to save for retirement, a concern shared on both sides of the aisle. And yet, President Trump and Congressional Republicans are hastily unraveling programs and pro-consumer regulations that strengthen our retirement system and expand access to the 55 million Americans lacking retirement plans through their employers. In an upcoming report, we will further examine the ongoing retirement crisis and its consequences, but first, a look at the most recent story lines in retirement security.
Today is the 9th anniversary of the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which gave women enhanced workplace protections in fighting pay discrimination. There remains work to be done in closing the gender pay gap—women working full-time, year-round earn 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man. The gap is substantially larger for black and Hispanic women, who earn 63 and 54 cents for every dollar earned by a white male, respectively. There are many challenges facing women that contribute to this gap, including a lack of family-friendly labor policies, career penalties for women that have children, a bias towards lower pay in women-dominated industries and occupations, and gender- and race-based discrimination in pay, hiring, and promotions.
Since the inception of the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients have become vital employees in industries across the economy—88,900 work in food, leisure and related industries, 54,000 work in retail trade, 41,300 in construction, 40,700 in education, health, and social services, and thousands work in other industries spanning the economy. Revoking their protection and putting them at risk of deportation not only hurts them and their families, it also hurts the businesses and communities that have come to rely on them.
As millions of American consumers try to start the New Year on the right foot, the Trump administration is working hard to undermine the financial wellness of our nation’s consumers. The administration’s recent changes to the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CFPB), which is charged with protecting consumers against the predatory and abusive practices that helped to bring about the Great Recession, will only make it more difficult for consumers to safely take out a mortgage, pay off student loans, buy a new car, and much more.
New data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing that natural disasters caused a record $306 billion in damage during 2017 underscores the need for immediate federal relief to Puerto Rico and other areas hit by disasters last year.