Economists had traditionally disliked minimum wages on the basis of simple supply and demand: compulsory high pay destroys jobs and pushes workers to the informal sector. In 1994 the OECD cautioned against the policy, favouring “direct” redistribution. But the same year landmark research by David Card and Alan Krueger, two American economists, was published, finding that a minimum-wage increase in New Jersey had not affected fast-food employment compared with neighbouring Pennsylvania. Others devised similar studies. Most found that minimum wages reduced employment, but only by a little.
That “little” got smaller and smaller over time—as a database of research maintained by Arindrajit Dube of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Ben Zipperer of the Economic Policy Institute, a think-tank, demonstrates. In the early 2000s the literature indicated that a 1% increase in wages caused by a higher minimum wage would lead to a 0.5% decline in employment. By the late 2010s the effect had fallen to around zero.
The Economist
November 20, 2025
Investopedia
November 19, 2025
But the one aspect of the broader immigration issue where the Democratic party line still allows dissent is precisely the aspect Trump has been highlighting — guestworker visas. The AFL-CIO switched sides on immigration in the mid-90s (after leading the anti-amnesty cause in the lead-up to the 1986 amnesty bill), but it is still comfortable criticizing guestworker visas. That’s why, for instance, the union-adjacent Economic Policy Institute has gotten away with publishing important and valuable work highlighting the problems with both high-skilled and low-skilled foreign-worker programs.
National Review
November 19, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute, this 2001 bubble burst was marred by a slower recovery, leading to a “tougher economy for highly educated …[paywall].
Forbes
November 19, 2025
The ultimate paradox is that, by nearly every measure, Democrats have managed the economy better than Republicans. The Economic Policy Institute reports that real GDP growth under Democratic presidents has averaged 3.8 percent, compared with 2.6 percent under Republicans, about 1.2 percentage points faster. Job creation has been more than twice as high. According to the Joint Economic Committee, under Democratic presidencies, the stock market performs better, unemployment rates are lower, and national debt grows more slowly.
Fordham Political Review
November 19, 2025
Amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to conceal the harmful consequences of his economic policies by hiding key data and replacing economists who tell harsh truths with partisan yes-people, a leading US think tank on Monday announced a new digital dashboard “to provide an accountability check” against attempts to manipulate and mislead the public.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) says its new data accountability dashboard “serves as a one-stop shop” for economic data as federal statistic agencies (FSAs), once the “gold standard” for information, “face historically unprecedented threats from the Trump administration to their capacity and even their independence.”
Common Dreams
November 19, 2025
Investopedia
November 19, 2025
But the one aspect of the broader immigration issue where the Democratic party line still allows dissent is precisely the aspect Trump has been highlighting — guestworker visas. The AFL-CIO switched sides on immigration in the mid-90s (after leading the anti-amnesty cause in the lead-up to the 1986 amnesty bill), but it is still comfortable criticizing guestworker visas. That’s why, for instance, the union-adjacent Economic Policy Institute has gotten away with publishing important and valuable work highlighting the problems with both high-skilled and low-skilled foreign-worker programs.
National Review
November 19, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute, this 2001 bubble burst was marred by a slower recovery, leading to a “tougher economy for highly educated …[paywall].
Forbes
November 19, 2025
The ultimate paradox is that, by nearly every measure, Democrats have managed the economy better than Republicans. The Economic Policy Institute reports that real GDP growth under Democratic presidents has averaged 3.8 percent, compared with 2.6 percent under Republicans, about 1.2 percentage points faster. Job creation has been more than twice as high. According to the Joint Economic Committee, under Democratic presidencies, the stock market performs better, unemployment rates are lower, and national debt grows more slowly.
Fordham Political Review
November 19, 2025