EPI in the news

• America’s Triage: On Trump’s Economic Nationalism

  The Economic Policy Institute estimates NAFTA cost 700,000 U.S. jobs by 2010. Manufacturing collapsed. Wages stagnated. The communities that lost those jobs have spent thirty years waiting for the market to sort it out.

  Capitalism Magazine | February 20, 2026
• New Kitsap laws could help alleviate childcare crisis

  The cost of childcare is prohibitive to working families in most parts of the nation, per data from the Economic Policy Institute. The federal Department of Health and Human Services places a benchmark for affordable childcare at about 7% of a family’s annual income, but there are no places in the country where that benchmark is met. Even in Mississippi, which has the cheapest cost of childcare in the nation, infant care alone is about 10% of median family income, and is doubled if a family has an infant and a four-year-old, exceeding the cost of in-state college tuition.

  Kitsap Daily News (Washington) | February 20, 2026
• Last Resort: Workforce housing projects expand affordable options in the Mountain West’s vacation towns

  As the population hub of Teton County, Jackson, Wyoming’s picturesque downtown anchors a community of residents, tourists, and outdoor enthusiasts. Despite its modest size and charming rustic feel, Teton County is consistently ranked as one of the country’s wealthiest places. But not every resident is tucked behind a fat bank account. According to the Economic Policy Institute, this county is the most economically unequal in the country, with its top 1 percent making 142 times more than the average income of the rest of the population.

  The Architect's Newspaper | February 20, 2026
• A Pre-SOTU Guide to Trump’s Economic Claims

  Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank, cautioned against looking at wage growth only over presidential terms, calling it “deeply misleading” because “macroeconomic cycles occasionally have huge effects that have nothing to do with presidential performance.”

  Bivens noted that average wages jumped up during the COVID-19 pandemic when the unemployment rate also spiked as mainly low-wage workers lost their jobs. As those low-wage workers regained employment, “it had the effect of artificially lowering measured wages in the aggregate.” (Burtless also said the pandemic had this impact on wage data.)

  “The lesson is that the proper way to measure macroeconomic variables like average wages is from business cycle peak to business cycle peak, not from the trough to a peak. That’s why, for example, we measure from 2019-2024 or 2025,” Bivens said.

  FactCheck.org | February 20, 2026
• This week in 5 numbers: Most workers like learning from other generations
  By the numbers

   

  1.4 percentage points

  The amount by which the Black women’s employment rate fell in 2025, marking one of the steepest one-year declines in the last 25 years, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank.
  HR Dive | February 20, 2026
• Why Federal Gov’t Unions Saw a More Than 6% Increase in Membership in 2025

  The increase in union membership and representation likely stems completely from a galvanized federal workforce whose members sought workers rights protections amid attacks from the Trump White House, Celine McNicholas, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, told TPM. 

  “It’s folks actively choosing to join their union, and it does make a little bit of intuitive sense if you think about it, while all of these attacks have been going on,” McNicholas said. “Those lawsuits trying to defend folks’ right to their jobs or their rights to collective bargaining are being led by the unions themselves.”

  …

  “I’ve heard many a union organizers say nothing motivates workers to speak up and demand representation like a terrible boss,” McNicholas said, “and I would argue Trump is the ultimate terrible boss.” 

  Talking Points Memo | February 20, 2026
• Unions Held the Line in 2025 Membership Numbers

  Some 14.7 million workers were estimated to be members of unions in 2025, which is 10 percent of the workforce, narrowly up from the previous year. An additional 1.8 million were covered by a union contract but were not members. According to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, nearly half the growth in union membership was in the South.

  Labor Notes | February 20, 2026

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