Josh Bivens, the chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, pointed to Federal Reserve data to underline the discrepancy between the tariffs Americans have paid versus the refunds they are seeing this year. A February report found that the federal government collected about $180 billion more in customs duties in 2025 compared to 2024. Tax refunds, however, are only up about $25 billion over the same time period. Bivens said, if anything, looking at strictly the tariffs collected underestimates the increased prices paid by consumers.
“This understates the costliness to U.S. households though, because tariffs also allow non-importing firms to raise their prices if they’re competing with imports,” Bivens said. “And, the lower incomes elsewhere in the economy due to tariffs also means other forms of taxes are collecting less money. So this $180 billion overstates how much revenue they’re bringing in.”
Salon
April 15, 2026
Labor advocates, however, have criticized the “no tax on tips” policy given its limited benefit and the risk it poses in expanding tips as income for low-wage workers and reducing base wages.
Other parts of the law championed by Trump that “created the tipped income deduction simultaneously enacted massive cuts to health care, energy, and food assistance programs that will cause tremendous harm for millions of low-income households, including some with tipped workers – all to finance tax cuts for the ultrawealthy,” wrote researchers with the Economic Policy Institute in a February 2026 report.
The Guardian
April 15, 2026
Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris latched on to the no tax on tips policy during the 2024 campaign, despite warnings from economists and others that it is a “deceptive ploy,” as the Economic Policy Institute’s David Cooper and Nina Mast put it last year.
“It does nothing to address the low wages, income instability, wage theft, and abuse tipped workers already face,” the pair reiterated in February. “Instead, it may undermine efforts to raise tipped minimum wages, push more workers into tipped jobs, increase workloads, and prompt customers to tip less if they believe tipped workers receive special tax treatment.”
Common Dreams
April 14, 2026
Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris latched on to the no tax on tips policy during the 2024 campaign, despite warnings from economists and others that it is a “deceptive ploy,” as the Economic Policy Institute’s David Cooper and Nina Mast put it last year.
“It does nothing to address the low wages, income instability, wage theft, and abuse tipped workers already face,” the pair reiterated in February. “Instead, it may undermine efforts to raise tipped minimum wages, push more workers into tipped jobs, increase workloads, and prompt customers to tip less if they believe tipped workers receive special tax treatment.”
Common Dreams
April 14, 2026
Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris latched on to the no tax on tips policy during the 2024 campaign, despite warnings from economists and others that it is a “deceptive ploy,” as the Economic Policy Institute’s David Cooper and Nina Mast put it last year.
“It does nothing to address the low wages, income instability, wage theft, and abuse tipped workers already face,” the pair reiterated in February. “Instead, it may undermine efforts to raise tipped minimum wages, push more workers into tipped jobs, increase workloads, and prompt customers to tip less if they believe tipped workers receive special tax treatment.”
Common Dreams
April 14, 2026
In the report, it was revealed that a single resident in Ohio would need to make between $18.66 and $26.82 hourly to adequately afford everyday living costs, depending on the county in which they reside.
This was confirmed by Economic Policy Institute data.
The U.S. Sun
April 13, 2026
Under Ms. Spanberger, Virginia joins more than a dozen other states that pay service workers at least $15 an hour, bolstering a decades-long “fight for $15” campaign by progressive activists.
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute projects that 17 states pay at least $15 an hour this year, from $15.15 in Arizona to $17.13 in Washington.
Washington Times
April 13, 2026
Before Trump nominated her to replace labor champion Jennifer Abruzzo as general counsel of the NLRB, Carey was a partner at Morgan Lewis, one of the biggest management-side law firms in the country. The Economic Policy Institute noted following Carey’s Senate confirmation last year that Morgan Lewis “represents corporations known for violating workers’ rights, including Amazon, SpaceX, Apple, and Tesla.”
“Morgan Lewis is also pursuing the legal challenge that the NLRB is unconstitutional, despite several former NLRB members being employed at the firm,” EPI noted. (Amazon has also argued in court that the labor board is unconstitutional.)
Common Dreams
April 13, 2026
Behind those dueling totals is a wonky but important distinction. Economic researchers separate the workers currently paid below the proposed new minimum, the “direct” beneficiaries, from workers who earn just above that level and may get smaller raises when employers adjust their overall pay ladders.
That split is central to the minimum wage simulation model used by the Economic Policy Institute, which underpins many state-level estimates. Depending on whether analysts count only those sub-$15 paychecks or also include the wider band of likely follow-on raises, the story about how many people are affected looks very different.
Hoodline
April 13, 2026