Keystone Research Center Press Releases

KRC Welcomes Four New Board Members

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 08:32:00 -0500

Harrisburg -- Keystone Research Center, a research and policy organization focusing on the economic health of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvanians, has announced the addition of four new members to its board of directors:

Jill Sunday Bartoli, Ph.D. Dr. Bartoli is associate professor of social work at Elizabethtown College.

C. Lu Conser, MPH. Ms. Conser is director of grants, Carlisle Area Health & Wellness Foundation.

Robin C. Greene. Ms. Greene is vice president of operations, Mid-Atlantic Region office of Alliant Insurance Services, Inc.

Hadass Sheffer, MBA. Ms. Sheffer is the founding director of Graduate! Philadelphia, a program to increase the number of college graduates among working adults in Philadelphia.

“We are pleased to welcome these new board members who have a wealth of valuable and diverse knowledge, experience, and networks. Since its founding in 1996, Keystone Research Center has conducted research on a variety of issues that affect the quality of life for the citizens of the Commonwealth,” said Steve Herzenberg, executive director.

“We are pleased that we can draw upon citizens who are active in a broad range of organizations pursuing a variety of activities to inform KRC’s policy research and recommendations.”

Treadmill To Nowhere: Many Low-Wage Workers Do Not See Earnings Gains Even After Six Years, Keystone Research Finds

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Harrisburg, PA – The Keystone Research Center (KRC) today released fresh data demonstrating that many Pennsylvania workers with annual earnings below the poverty level in 1998 still earned below the poverty level six years later. “KRC’s new findings underscore that many low-wage Pennsylvania workers are on a treadmill rather than an escalator,” said economist Stephen Herzenberg, a co-author of KRC’s Briefing Paper, Stuck on the Bottom Rung of the Wage Ladder. “For these workers, earning closer to a family supporting income requires Pennsylvania to increase its minimum wage.” To conduct its study, KRC obtained data from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry on Pennsylvania workers with low annual earnings in 1998. Among 670,000 individuals who started out with below-poverty-level earnings in 1998, 261,000 – about two in five – still had below-poverty-level earnings in 2004. (These 261,000 workers earned less than $13,020 in 2004, which translates to less than $6.26 per hour for a full-time, full-year worker.)

Small Business Job Growth Faster In States With Minimum Wages Higher Than $5.15

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Harrisburg, PA – The Albany, New York, based Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) today released a new study demonstrating that job growth among small businesses was faster in recent years in states with a minimum wage higher than $5.15 per hour. The Keystone Research Center (KRC) co-released the new FPI study in Pennsylvania along with a revised Fact Sheet summarizing findings from recent KRC studies on the effects of raising the state’s minimum wage, a measure still being considered by the General Assembly. “FPI’s new evidence shows that a higher minimum wage not only benefits workers but can spur economic growth that benefits small business owners” said KRC labor economist Mark Price. “Increases in labor costs are offset by savings from lower recruitment and training costs and by greater revenue from increased sales.”

The State of Working Pennsylvania 2006: Wages Fall for Most Pennsylvanians

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Harrisburg – Despite more than four years of economic growth, the inflation-adjusted wages of all but the most highly paid Pennsylvanians declined in 2005 as it has over the last several years. “To a degree that is stunning, the benefits of a strong economy have been concentrated at the very top of the Pennsylvania income scale,” says Dr. Mark Price, co-author of The State of Working Pennsylvania 2006. Inflation-adjusted hourly wages for typical Pennsylvanians—right in the middle of the earnings distribution—fell from $14.55 to $14.21 in 2005. Even relatively high-wage earners, those who earn more than nine out of every 10 Pennsylvanians, saw their wages decline in 2005 for third year in a row.

State Should Take Action To Bolster Retirement Security Says Keystone Research Center

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 09:17:06 -0400

Harrisburg – With concerns about retirement security widespread, state government should take action to strengthen pension security in both the private and public sector according to a new report released today by the Keystone Research Center (KRC) and the Center for American Progress (CAP). Public anxiety about retirement security stems from a number of trends, mostly in the private sector. Only half of private sector Pennsylvania workers are now covered by any employer-provided pension and the quality of many pensions that remain has deteriorated. Some have proposed to make public sector pensions more like private sector ones, a step that would further undermine retirement security. “Given low saving rates, record borrowing, and recent wage declines for most workers,” says Dr. Stephen Herzenberg, KRC economist, “what will happen to today’s workers when they retire must be on the policy agenda in Harrisburg.” The KRC study Rewarding Hard Work: Give Pennsylvania Families a Shot at Middle Class Retirement Benefits argues that the state could and should take steps now to help Pennsylvanian’s secure their retirement.

KRC Estimates the Number of Workers in each PA County Who Would Benefit from Minimum Wage Rise

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 10:09:28 -0500

The Keystone Research Center today released estimates of the number of workers in each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties who would benefit from a rise in the state’s minimum wage. “The largest number of workers who will benefit from a minimum wage hike live in densely populated urban counties,” said Mark Price, a labor economist at KRC. “But an even greater share of workers will benefit in low-wage rural counties. The least benefit would be felt in high-wage suburban counties like Chester and Montgomery counties outside Philadelphia.” The study, Where Low-Wage Pennsylvania Workers Live, is in part a response to a question raised by Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill of Lebanon County on the floor of the Senate before Thanksgiving. Describing conversations about the minimum wage in his district, Brightbill stated: “. . . I ask the question, ‘well do you know anybody that is making minimum wage?’ And nobody does.’” The Keystone study answers by estimating that some 860,000 workers – those now earning the minimum wage or close to it -- would benefit either directly or indirectly from raising the state’s minimum wage.

Fewer Pennsylvanians Get Health Insurance Through Their Jobs

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 19:39:34 -0400

The number of Pennsylvanians with employer-provided health insurance declined by 4.1 percent between 2000 and 2004 according to a new study by the Keystone Research Center and Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute. The decline means that about 494,000 fewer Pennsylvanians get health insurance through their employer today than did in 2000. One in seven of the people who lost employer-provided health insurance coverage in the U.S. between 2000 and 2004 lived in Pennsylvania. “Ask most people what they think a good job is and you’ll hear them answer ‘one that provides health insurance,’ said Mark Price, a labor economist at the Keystone Research Center. “By this widely accepted measure, the quality of many jobs in Pennsylvania has declined over the last five years.”

The Qualifications Of Pennsylvania's Early Childhood Educators Have Declined Sharply Since 1980s Says Keystone Research Center

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 00:01:00 -0400

Harrisburg – In the 1980s about 40 percent of teaching staff in Pennsylvania's center-based preschool programs outside the public schools had a four-year college degree. Today, according to a new study by the Keystone Research Center, the number is 27 percent. The study, Losing Ground in Pennsylvania Early Childhood Education, also reports that the share of staff with a high school degree or less has risen from 34% in the mid 1980s to 43% in the 1998-2004 period. (Teaching staff, also referred to as early childhood educators, include teachers, administrators, assistant teachers, and aides.) The decline in the educational level of early childhood educators at a time when the overall workforce became more educated is cause for concern according to Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of the Keystone Research Center and an author of the study.

Santorum Minimum Wage Proposal Would Hurt Low-Wage Workers

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Harrisburg – According to a Keystone Research Center analysis, a proposal by Senator Rick Santorum that raises the federal minimum wage is actually a threat to many workers’ incomes.

The State or Working Pennsylvania 2005: Wages Stagenate or Decline for Many Pennsylvania Workers

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Harrisburg – Wage stagnation spread throughout most of the Pennsylvania wage distribution in 2003, with the lowest-paid workers losing ground for the third year in a row according to the State of Working Pennsylvania 2005 released today by the Harrisburg-based Keystone Research Center. In spite of three years of over-all economic recovery, the inflation-adjusted hourly earnings of typical low-wage Pennsylvania workers fell 10 cents per hour between 2003 and 2004 and 15 cents per hour since 2001, to $7.16 per hour. Falling wages contributed to a rise in Pennsylvania poverty rates by 20 percent since 1999-2000. According to the KRC report, low-wage Pennsylvania workers earn less in inflation-adjusted terms than they did in 1979 as well as in 2001 and 2003. Their current wage level amounts to about $15,000 per year if these workers are employed full-time, full-year.