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All right enough of that, let’s get to today’s newsletter! It’s all about the wage gap, the Supreme Court and price of eggs. — Tony Wagner, newsletter editor

We’re going to get the government’s official employment tally for June on Thursday.

The report is coming on the heels of three straight positive monthly jobs reports, in terms of the number of jobs the economy added.

That said, those reports have been telling us that wage growth has been steadily slowing. And for women, it’s slowing even more, according to an analysis of weekly earnings data by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the gender wage gap got narrower. Kate Bahn, chief economist at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said that was thanks to more women entering the workforce, broader minimum wage protections, and better access to contraception.

“There’s research showing that that directly led to women finishing college and going on to grad school and earning money later on,” Bahn said.

Bahn said a lot of that progress was down to policy decisions by lawmakers. And by the 2000s and 2010s, that progress stalled.

Then came the pandemic. Demand for low-wage labor spiked. So wages did, too.

“Women are over-represented in low-wage jobs,” Bahn said. “And so when you have low-wage workers broadly have more earnings growth, that is going to reduce the gender wage gap.”

But since the pandemic, the gap has started widening again.

“Men’s earnings grew 3.7% in 2024, adjusted for inflation, and women’s grew, in our findings, only 1.5%, but it was not statistically significantly different from zero,” Bahn said.

A lot of the job growth in the economy has shifted away from those lower-wage positions that helped boost women’s average earnings, said Yana Rodgers, a professor at Rutgers University.

“So as demand rose again for other jobs, more dominated by men, their wages picked up,” Rodgers said.

Also, Rodgers said women are still disproportionately responsible for taking care of children and elders at home.

“Care work is probably the biggest constraint that women face,” Rodgers said. “So they’re just not as able to respond to opportunities in the labor market as men.”

That could apply to today’s 5-4 ruling upholding the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship, but Binder was actually talking about the Federal Reserve.

A central bank’s political independence makes for a stronger economy, and the Supreme Court gave the Fed the smallest carveout at the same time it handed the White House more power to reshape nominally independent federal agencies. Binder came on “Marketplace Morning Report” to talk about how the government moves forward from this week’s big rulings.

Without breaking the bank. At least, you couldn’t last year when the price of a dozen eggs surged nationwide. The industry blamed avian flu, but the federal government and 17 states opened investigations into price fixing.

Now, three major egg producers will pay $3.3 million and donate 53 million eggs to nonprofits around the country to settle those claims without admitting wrongdoing. The Associated Press notes prices plunged as the flu outbreak subsided and, it just so happens, when the feds started asking questions.