EPI in the news

• How much do you need to make to be ‘comfortable’ in the Capital Region?

  The cost of necessities is calculated using data from the Economic Policy Institute’s family budget calculator, with inflation adjusted to 2025 dollars in the study. The figures show the income a family needs for a modest yet adequate standard of living, breaking out costs for housing, food, health care, taxes and more.

  “Many families don’t have the discretionary spending. They want to save for college for their kids and just simply don’t have anything extra,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist from the Economic Policy Institute, pointing out that the budget rule is now unrealistic for many families. “They can have trouble making ends meet, let alone being able to invest in the future.”

  Albany Times Union | December 16, 2025
• Is $140,000 really the new poverty line?

  MIT’s Living Wage Calculator and the Economic Policy Institute both show that a genuinely comfortable lifestyle for a family of four can easily top $100,000 in many states. And a recent Harris Poll found that 64% of Americans earning six figures say their income merely keeps them afloat. The virality of Green’s post itself suggests that traditional economic indicators don’t fully reflect how financially strained many American families feel.

  Quartz | December 16, 2025
• A day in the life of a Colorado Springs bus driver

  The school bus driver shortage is just a fact of life, Richardson said; it’s been a consistent problem for most of her career. Data from the Economic Policy Institute show that school bus driver employment has decreased over the past 15 years, prompted by federal budget cuts in the early 2010s that forced schools to cut bus services or privatize its school buses. 

  Rocky Mountain PBS | December 16, 2025
• 2025 was one hell of a year. Consumers should expect more ‘silent pain’ in 2026

  Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., says the welcome reduction in inflation since the pandemic has finally flatlined, but it may yet show some uptick next year. Wage growth from 2019 to 2024, particularly for lower-wage workers, “stopped pretty dead in 2025 and seems unlikely to reverse in 2026.”

  …

  A slowdown in wage growth will create silent pain in 2026. “Consumers might chalk up their struggles to high prices or cost-of-living because they often don’t even think they – or policymakers – have any real control over their wage growth, but wages are the blade of the scissors that does most of the cutting in terms of determining affordability,” he adds.

  MarketWatch | December 16, 2025
• Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda Could Kill 400,000 Direct Care Jobs in US: Report

  The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analysis shows that if the Trump administration achieves its stated goal of deporting one million people per year over the next four years, “the direct care industry would lose close to 400,000 jobs—affecting 274,000 immigrant and 120,000 US-born workers.”

  Common Dreams | December 16, 2025
• Housing costs fuel affordability crisis Trump refuses to see

  🔭 A view from the left:

  Affordability also reflects decades of wage stagnation.

  Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute argues that federal policies — from a frozen minimum wage to weakened unions and consolidation — have held down pay. EPI estimates typical workers would earn about 40 percent more today had wages kept pace with productivity.

  The Boston Globe | December 16, 2025
• December 19, 2025
  | December 16, 2025

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