- Slippery Floor: It didn’t take long for Big Labor to decide that the $20 minimum hourly wage for fast food workers in California was too low. A report released yesterday by the union-aligned Economic Policy Institute argues that “regular and automatic adjustments” are necessary to protect those workers from inflation. In reality, workers need protection from the minimum wage itself. In November, researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, found “a plethora of negative outcomes” from the institution of the $20 minimum wage in 2024. These included “higher menu prices for consumers, reductions in employee working hours, widespread elimination of overtime, and loss of benefits for employees.” Eventually every Burger King in California will be staffed by one guy making $112 an hour to keep an eye on the robots.
The Wall Street Journal
March 24, 2026
Last year the average minimum wage for H-2A workers was $17.43. The think tank Economic Policy Institute estimates that following proposed cuts by the Trump administration, the minimum wage for many farmworkers would fall to $13.70 an hour.
Raleigh News and Observer
March 24, 2026
Slowing wage gains have contributed to the widening gap between rich and poor. Since 1979, wages for the bottom 90% of earners have increased 44%, while wages for the top 1% of earners have risen more than 180%, a 2024 report from the Economic Policy Institute found.
NBC News
March 24, 2026
That squeeze hit as infant care was already costing Indiana families roughly $14,471 a year on average, according to Economic Policy Institute data cited by local outlets such as WISH.
Hoodline
March 23, 2026
The assessment of Trump’s economy comes less than a year after the president fired McEntarfer as BLS commissioner, baselessly accusing her of releasing a ”rigged” jobs report meant to make him and GOP lawmakers look bad (3).
Sources:
Economic Policy Institute (3)
MoneyWise
March 23, 2026
Sources:
- Mishel, Lawrence and Bivens, Josh. “Identifying the Policy Levers Generating Wage Suppression and Wage Inequality.” Economic Policy Institute, May 2021, pp. 31-32.
Investopedia
March 23, 2026
Nebraska has the 13th-lowest cost-of-living index nationally at 91.6, but infant child care costs there actually exceed the average monthly rent, according to LendingTree. Only 14% of Nebraska families meet HHS affordability guidelines, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Street
March 23, 2026
The targeting of immigrant construction workers is also likely to cause knock-on impacts. According to a July report by the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute, if Trump achieves his goal of deporting 4 million people by the end of 2028, 1.4m immigrants working in construction would be gone. And about 861,000 US-born workers would also lose their job because contractors would have to rapidly scale back.
The Guardian
March 23, 2026
The lowest paid workers did considerably better, which is a predictable result of the tight labor market in the years following the reopening. The Economic Policy Institute found that workers at the 10th decile of the wage distribution had a real pay increase of 15 percent between 2019 and 2024, the fastest pace of wage growth for low-paid workers in more than half a century.
Counterpunch
March 23, 2026
MIRA Executive Director Elizabeth Sweet, who thanked immigrants in the room for their courage to attend, cited a study from the Economic Policy Institute that estimates a continued federal deportation agenda could lead to the loss of six million jobs nationwide and approximately 4% of the workforce in Massachusetts.
Metrowest Daily News (MA)
March 23, 2026