The average cost of child care is $1,000 per month in Montana, Tennessee, Florida and other states and can run even more in other states, including Ohio ($1,400 per month), Maryland ($1,600 per month) and California ($1,800), according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Fairfield Sun Times
May 5, 2025
Today, I’ll lay out some of the most egregious actions taken by the Trump regime in the first 100 days to attack unions and working people in both the public and private sectors. Much of this is based on indispensable research by the Economic Policy Institute and its just released 100 Days, 100 Ways Trump Hurt Workers. (For more great reports like this, you can subscribe to EPI here.)
Michael Podhorzer Substack
May 5, 2025
Americans who work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, at the federal minimum wage no longer make enough money to keep themselves out of poverty.
For workers in the 20 states that have not passed their own higher minimum wage, working full-time at $7.25 brings in $15,080 per year, short of the poverty line of $15,650 for a single-person household, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Popular Information
May 5, 2025
The Department of Health and Human Services set the federal poverty threshold at $15,650 for a single-person household, meaning that in these 21 states, which are concentrated in the South, millions of full-time workers are earning below the poverty line. One in five workers with just one job in those states lives in poverty, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Latin Times
May 5, 2025
The pro-union Economic Policy Institute says the Trump administration has shut down 11 OSHA offices in states with higher workplace fatality rates. And the administration has effectively gotten rid of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which conducts workplace safety research that’s used by OSHA in policymaking, EPI’s overview shows.
Wis Business
May 5, 2025
We are among the most expensive states for child care, according to Visual Capitalist. Child care is considered affordable if it costs no more than 7% of a family’s income. According to the Economic Policy Institute, every family earning their area’s median income pays a bigger percentage than that.
Stamford Advocate
May 5, 2025
“Anyone that Trump appoints should be expected to rule for employers over workers,” said Margaret Poydock, a senior policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. “That completely destroys the independence of the agency, an agency that is meant to protect workers’ organizing and bargaining rights.”
The fight over the National Labor Relations Board, which raises fundamental questions about executive power, has received its fair share of media coverage. Other changes are easier to miss. In March, Trump rescinded an executive order issued by President Joe Biden that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour and was indexed to inflation, with the current minimum set at $17.75. The Economic Policy Institute estimated that the move had raised the wages for nearly 400,000 workers — a gain that Trump has now moved to erase.
Capital & Main
May 5, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) last week compiled a list of “100 ways Trump has hurt workers in his first 100 days,” which includes terminating grants to fight forced and child labor, nominating Crystal Casey to be general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board, and leaving the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service with what one employee recently toldCommon Dreams is “a very skeletal crew.”
Common Dreams
May 5, 2025
Paid sick leave benefits may boost employment, earnings for female workers, and the emotional connection people feel toward their job and the organization, a pair of recent studies cited by the independent, nonprofit Economic Policy Institute show.
In a blog post, the institute notes that access to job-protected paid sick leave allows workers to take time off to seek medical care, recover from illness or injury, or take care of an ailing family member.
Safety and Health Magazine
May 5, 2025
For example, a $25,000 per year family plan would increase by $600 if Trump’s proposed tariffs on prescription drugs happen, Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told The Hill.
“Not a total game-changer, but, given how expensive premiums already are, this is not small money,” Bivens said.
Consumer Affairs
May 5, 2025