Media clips

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• Virginia minimum wage on track to increase to $15 per hour by 2028

  By contrast, the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, argues that rising costs of living justify wage increases to promote more spending power and stability for minimum wage workers. The organization said its research showed minimal to no job losses from minimum wage hikes.

  ARL Now February 18, 2026
• Constraints On Executive Compensation: Practical Or Political?

  Wage inequality is rising. According to Investopedia, the ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay in 2025 was 348-to-1.

  The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) puts that number at 281 in 2024 compared with 21 in 1965. 

  Forbes February 18, 2026
• School spending rises nationally amid enrollment decline

  The Economic Policy Institute has found that teacher benefits, including pensions, do not fully offset what it calls a growing wage penalty compared to other college-educated workers. The compensation gap for teachers was -17.1% in 2024.

  The Center Square February 18, 2026
• Starbucks investor group gears up for board fight over backsliding labor relations

  The Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, found the number of charges filed was “almost certainly” the highest number in history.

  Business Insider February 18, 2026
• At what age can you leave a child home alone in Florida? What the law says

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual cost of full-time child care in Florida ranges from $9,548 to $13,021

  The News-Press February 18, 2026
• Discovery Cove accused of refusing to recognize divers’ union, violating federal labor law

  Under the National Labor Relations Act, private employers have a legal duty to bargain “in good faith” with a union that has been certified by the federal National Labor Relations Board as employees’ bargaining agent. As the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute notes, however, “it is a common tactic for employers to slow-walk the bargaining process because there are no penalties for doing so, and delay frustrates workers and undermines their union.”

  Orlando Weekly February 18, 2026
• Memphis business leaders discuss AI’s impact on economy

  A single parent with two children needs a salary of at least $81,000 in Memphis, according to the family budget calculator with the Economic Policy Institute.

  FOX 13 Memphis February 18, 2026
• Why voters hate Trump’s (pretty decent) economy

  For now, these shifts haven’t triggered widespread unemployment. But it has constrained American workers’ exit options — and thus, their bargaining power. As the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI) notes, real wage growth last year trailed its average annual pace between 2019 and 2024.

  And the slowdown was especially sharp at both the top and bottom of the income ladder: The highest-earning decile of Americans saw their real wages grow by just 0.4 percent in 2025, compared to an average pace of 1.1 percent during the five years prior. Meanwhile, real wages actually fell for the poorest decile of workers, after climbing at a 2.4 percent annual clip from 2019 through 2024.

  VOX February 18, 2026
• Black women employment sees one of its sharpest annual declines in past 25 years

  Black women in the U.S. suffered greater employment losses than other groups of women or Black men in 2025, and some of the largest losses were among college graduates and public-sector workers, according to new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.

  HR Dive February 18, 2026
• Black women employment sees one of its sharpest annual declines in past 25 years

  Black women in the U.S. suffered greater employment losses than other groups of women or Black men in 2025, and some of the largest losses were among college graduates and public-sector workers, according to new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.

  HR Dive February 18, 2026