The Indicator from Planet Money - The teacher pay penalty, Meta's major settlement, and a footwear flop

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

This week’s indicators: The teacher pay penalty; Meta’s massive settlement; Nike and Dick’s Sporting Goods are struggling.  Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.Your Next Listen — Why infinite scroll's inventor wants to kill his creationConnect with The Indicator — Sign up for The Indicator’s weekly newsletter! — Buy the Planet Money book — Find our socials, YouTube and more! — For sponsor-free episodes, subscribe to NPR+ Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

NPR. This is the Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong. I'm Riqui Maw. And like the late, great Dolly Parton once saying, we have tumbled out of the bed and stumbled to the kitchen for indicators of the week. It is that day of the week where we talk about our favorite numbers from the news. On today's episode, teachers are truly doing their jobs for the love of the game.

Massive, massive settlement news from Meta. And it seems like consumers are telling shoes to kick it. I see what you did there. Waylon Wong, why don't you go first? All right. Well, school is back in session. And so my indicator is thematically appropriate. It is 74.8 cents on the dollar.

That is the average wage that public school teachers in the U.S. earned in 2025 compared with similar college graduates working in other professions. 74.8 cents on the dollar. The data comes from the Economic Policy Institute, which is a left-leading think tank that focuses on low and middle-income working families. And EPA economist Sylvia Allegretto published a report this week about what she calls the teacher pay penalty. I always knew public school teachers weren't making bank, but wow, they're doing this for the love of the game, Waylon. Truly. So Sylvia, the economist, looked at weekly wages because that accounts for, you know, teachers being off during the summers. She controlled for factors like age and location. And she found that people in other professions

make around 25% more than teachers. And these other workers' wages have also kept up with inflation, whereas teachers' wages have not. And then even when you add in benefits like health insurance and retirement plans, teachers come out behind. Ugh, makes me think I should have been a better student to my teachers. Not eating so much paste. I mean, somebody's got to. That stuff is highly edible. Why would it be so delicious if you weren't supposed to eat it, right? Exactly.

I don't even know if they have paste anymore in classrooms, but this analysis goes back to the late 70s, and the pay gap has always been there. The thing is, though, it's gotten worse. Like, in 1996, teachers made 6% less than their peers in other professions. In 2024, they made 27% less. That's actually a record.

And economist Sylvia Allegretto says this disparity has already taken a toll on recruiting and retaining teachers. And then you can imagine that has an effect on the quality of public education in the U.S. Yeah, you see so many stories. I see Instagram stories of teachers spending their own money on supplies for the classroom or asking family, friends, their network to contribute. Yeah, my middle schooler this year had to bring multiple containers of Kleenex and disinfected wipes and paper towels and stuff. And weirdly, she didn't bring a single notebook, I guess, because everything's online, but literally, not a single notebook in the backpack this year. I don't know what's happening. Wow.

Well, at least I'm saving on my property taxes. Adrienne Ma. Oh, God. Adrian Ma, you're next. My indicator is two hours. Two hours is the default limit on screen time. Teenagers would be allowed on Instagram and Facebook under the terms of a landmark settlement announced Wednesday. It was announced by META and attorneys general who've sued the company.

Good luck enforcing that. Two hours is not very much time, actually, when you consider the amount of brain rot that we all engage in. It's true. Yeah, two hours is still a good chunk of the day. But just to give folks a little background if they haven't been following this, this lawsuit was brought by 47 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories, who have alleged that META's apps contain features that are harmful to children and that they've misled the public about these. So that case went to trial last week. And although Meta denies the allegations, they have decided to settle. This seems a little bit like the cigarette big tobacco moment from the 90s. I think that is a fair comparison.

And I mean, even this huge settlement that involves almost every single state doesn't account for every single lawsuit that's out there against Meta, right? There's so many. Right. And there are actually thousands of these types of cases across multiple social media apps. not just meta. And in fact, that is what makes this settlement such a big deal because it could very well become a benchmark. Now, meta could end up paying plaintiff states about $17 billion. That's equivalent to about 8.5% of what the company took home in revenue last year. And they would also have to make a bunch of other big changes aimed at curbing the addictive

or harmful effects that are associated with social media use. So that means they would have to implement stricter age verification. And by default, for teen accounts, that would automatically turn on a nighttime mode, which would block notifications. It would restrict teens' access to beauty filters and light counts. Oh, interesting. And I thought this was kind of interesting. Teens would receive periodic notifications designed to interrupt mindless scrolling.

I think I need some of those notifications. Maybe the adults can get in on this settlement, too. Yeah, right. I still want the filters because I'm... middle age and I need the help on social media, but I could use the time limit. Oh, thanks. Just so you know, they're not going to get rid of, like, if you have, you know, I don't know, a filter designed to make you look like an animal.

Okay, or like a potato. Apparently those are not part of it. Don't take away my potato filter. Yeah, and it is worth noting that some of these defaults could actually be overridden by parents if they choose. And meta is required to make most of these changes within six months. Also important to mention meta's competitors like YouTube, TikTok, and Snap, they're all part of this litigation, but they haven't settled yet. But in a statement, Meta basically said, hey, jump in, the water is warm.

You know, it's urge other companies to adopt these measures as a new industry standard. Yeah, I mean, META doesn't want these other apps remaining like wide open for business all night long when they're over here restricting teen eyeballs. Yeah, yeah, they want everyone in the same in the same. So super interesting. Thank you for summarizing a very complicated case for us, Adrian. Ricky, why don't you walk us home? So my indicator has to do with Dick's sporting goods, which is having trouble selling shoes. The stock crashed roughly 30% on its earnings report, and the company dropped about $5 billion in total value. And part of this is because the execs said that customers aren't buying as many lifestyle sneakers as they used to.

And the actual stores are still growing sales, but the company recently purchased Foot Locker and investors are worrying that's a bad bet as 80% of Foot Locker's sales are footwear and those sales are slowing. Okay. So if I have not put my life savings into Dick Sporting Good Stock, is there another reason we should care about this? Yes. Why care about a retailer's merger in acquisitions ambitions? Well, sometimes an earnings call will tell you about actual deals coming. you can translate the management speak. So now you have my attention.

Are you telling me there's a sale? Maybe. On Dick's latest call, an analyst asked, do you think there could be some sort of hangover around the footwear cycle, which is just a fancy way of saying, uh, why aren't you selling more shoes right now? And CEO Lauren Hobart basically said that customers have just chilled out on old school sneakers. Think Air Force Ones, Nike's Air Force Ones.

Now, these shoes normally retail for about $115. but Dix is starting to sell at least one version of the shoe for around $70 as of this recording. So it's a pretty good deal. You just might need to be a little flexible on the color. But wait, if Dix is hurting because people aren't buying these classic sneakers, I mean, what about a company like Nike, which makes those Air Force ones? Yeah, Nike's stock has lost about three quarters of its value over the past five years. And some conservatives have blamed a woke or inclusive marketing strategy. there's a lot more to the story. Basically, Nike wanted to sell more products directly to consumers

in the late 2010s and the pandemic or basically cut out the stores that sell Nike products. And it can be a bad idea to tell everyone who wants to sell your products that you think you can do a better job. Wait, never mind, we need you back again. Well, someone tell Nelly that the Air Force Ones are now a great deal. Nellie, specifically, you can email us at indicator at npr.org. If you like this program and find value in it, the easiest way to support our independent journalism is by joining NPR Plus. Go to plus.npr.org. Get bonus episodes, invites to virtual events, and sponsor-free listening.

This episode was produced by Angel Carreras and engineer by Robert Rodriguez. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and edited by Julia Ritchie. King & Cannon is our show's editor and The Indicator is a production of NPR.