EPI in the news

• IMF warns of significant economic slowdown due to Trump’s tariff policies

  The IMF said the world is entering a new era and said the slowdown is due to the president’s unpredictable policies. However, the White House assured the country today that President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda is working.

  “It’s basically all about the uncertain tariff policy, and the very high new tariffs, and the trade war that they have ignited,” said Josh Bivens, EPI chief economist.

  Hearst TV | April 23, 2025
• The Fight Against Child Labor Is Surviving the ESG Backlash

  But the regulatory environment may be changing quickly. The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit focusing on income inequality, workers’ rights and other progressive causes, counted 31 US states that introduced bills to weaken child labor laws from 2021 through 2024.

  Bloomberg | April 23, 2025
• DOGE Unleashes Wrecking Ball That Rips Into DC’s Special Status

  The average Black unemployment rate in the District of Columbia had improved in recent years, falling below 10% for the first time since the Great Recession, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of government data. Yet African Americans are overrepresented in federal government jobs, and could wind up bearing the brunt of Trump’s cutbacks.

  Bloomberg | April 23, 2025
• Letter: Greed threatens our country and way of life. America’s recent history lays that bare.

  Looking closer at corruption, the Economic Policy Institute reports that the CEO-vs-worker pay ratio peaked in 2021 at 399:1 [290:1 in 2023]. It has increased by over 1,000% since 1978 as compared to average worker pay, which has increased by only 24%. In 1965 the CEO-vs-worker pay ratio was 21:1.

  Salt Lake Tribune | April 23, 2025
• How This Legal Immigration Program Became a Human Trafficking Scheme

  Features interview with Daniel Costa. 

  More Perfect Union | April 23, 2025
• Engineer brought safety concerns. Tesla allegedly threatened to deport her team.

  Now, access to courts is barred for more than 60 million American workers, according to a 2017 report by the Economic Policy Institute. 

  Houston Chronicle | April 23, 2025
• One State’s Free Child Care Lifted 120K Out of Poverty

  Still steep: In the US at large, the average family paid close to $12,000 per year for child care in 2023, per NBC News. According to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, New Mexicans are still paying more for infant care than they are for housing and college tuition, with infant care for just one child eating up more than a fifth of the median family income in the state. For workers earning just the minimum wage, they’d have to fork over more than 57% of their annual pay to cover a year’s worth of infant child care.

  Newser | April 23, 2025

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