D’Esposito isn’t alone. Ten years after stepping back from her law career in 2016, women across the country and on Long Island still face wage discrimination. Nationally, the gender pay gap widened marginally in 2025 for the third year in a row, reversing decades of progress. Smaller pay gap in New YorkOn average, women were paid 18.6% percent less than men last year – a wider gap than the 18% difference between men and women’s pay in 2024, according to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Newsday
March 26, 2026
These findings mirror broader national workforce research. Reporting from the Economic Policy Institute notes that surveys of U.S. workers consistently show strong demand for flexible scheduling, particularly flexible start and end times. Across multiple polls, majorities of employees say flexibility helps them better manage work and personal responsibilities.
Stacker
March 26, 2026
“The short answer is that it’s a bad idea – a distraction from what would really make a difference: taxing all earnings at the same rate,” said Monique Morrissey, senior economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute.
Her organization favors a different approach to closing the shortfall: Eliminating an existing cap on the payroll taxes that fund Social Security.
Workers pay into Social Security with a levy split between employers and employees. In 2026, earnings above $184,500 are not taxed for Social Security. Eliminating that cap could fund nearly three-fourths of the Social Security shortfall, EPI estimates.
USA Today
March 26, 2026
Daniel Costa, the director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, said that a big issue with the H-2B visa program is that workers fear retaliation for complaining about work conditions. He added that employers are required to pay for the transportation of their H-2B visa workers in and out of the country.
“They’re very afraid to complain because you know if the employer gets wind of this, they could just fire them, which means they become deportable,” Costa said.
He also pointed out that a big issue with the H-2B visa program is lack of oversight over foreign recruiters. Costa said that recruiters often charge illegal fees to workers, making them vulnerable, and that workers often may not get the jobs or wages they were promised.
Nevada Independent
March 26, 2026
Other groups believe the Fair Admissions ruling and the administration’s quest to eradicate DEI policies will only lead to less diverse schools and workplaces.
“Without protected and equitable pathways for students of color, we risk returning to a higher education system defined by exclusion rather than opportunity,” wrote Adewale Maye, a policy and research analyst for the Economic Policy Institute, last year.
The Center Square
March 26, 2026
That leaves millions of workers without the same safeguards. According to the Economic Policy Institute, at least 17% of the U.S. workforce has an unstable or unpredictable schedule, a trend that can disrupt income and daily life (3).
MoneyWise
March 26, 2026
Federal work powers much of the I-95 corridor, employing residents in Maryland’s Calvert, Charles, Anne Arundel, Prince George’s, Montgomery and Baltimore counties, and northern Virginia counties, including Fairfax and Stafford. But it’s in D.C. that job loss has been most acute. The District logged the highest unemployment rate in the nation in 2025, according to the Economic Policy Institute, likely because of the high concentration of federal jobs there.
Talking Points Memo
March 26, 2026
To better understand who has benefited from this recent economic growth, we now shift from households to individuals, so that we can disaggregate the data by education, gender, and age, harder factors to isolate when analyzing households that pool income across multiple people. For this analysis, we focus on wage and salary workers aged 16 and older, building on an approach used by the Economic Policy Institute.
Boston Indicators
March 26, 2026
Critics such as the Economic Policy Institute also warn that expanding access to alternatives could expose participants to higher fees, added complexity, and weaker protections, arguing that institutional investors themselves have been pulling back from these strategies. Supporters, however, contend that with proper structure and clearer rules, fiduciaries can responsibly incorporate alternatives into professionally managed solutions.
401K Specialist
March 26, 2026
Supporters say the legislation addresses structural issues that contribute to the gender pay gap, which persists nationwide despite decades of policy efforts.
A recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that the gap widened slightly in 2025, with women on average earning about 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, down from roughly 84 cents the year before.
The report also found that Black and Hispanic women continue to face even wider disparities, earning significantly less than white, non-Hispanic men.
Virginia Mercury
March 26, 2026