The Fiscal Times
December 8, 2025
—Real incomes and wages must rise so people can get back their buying power. I’ve underscored the essential nature of this part of the solution, but not nearly as compellingly as Heidi Shierholz from EPI:
Today’s affordability debate, however, focuses almost entirely on prices, as if the only way to make life affordable is to make things cheaper. But that approach misses the bigger picture. Affordability depends on both prices and wages. The roots of today’s affordability crisis actually lie not in recent price spikes, but in the long-term suppression of workers’ pay.
Jared Bernstein's Substack
December 8, 2025
It’s not an either or situation. “The roots of today’s affordability crisis actually lie not in recent price spikes,” according to Heidi Shierholz, president at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the US Department of Labor, “but in the long-term suppression of workers’ pay.”
Common Dreams
December 8, 2025
A May 2023 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that 50% of U.S. workers aged 50 or older have physically taxing jobs. Further, 1 in 7 older workers (14.1%) reported being the victim of abusive or violent behavior at work.
Nasdaq
December 8, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute, employers spent more than $400 million per year on ‘union-avoidance’ consultants to bolster their union-busting efforts. Chipotle, among other corporations, has been accused of union-busting.
UW Daily
December 8, 2025
Jennifer Sherer, a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute, framed the baristas’ struggle as part of a nationwide wave of worker organizing amid …
The Gazette Cedar Rapids (Iowa)
December 8, 2025
Infant care costs are also 11.7% higher than the average rent, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Chicago Tribune
December 8, 2025
Escobedo’s predicament illustrates the challenges that many young Americans, even those with impressive academic records, are having entering the nation’s workforce amid a broad decline in job listings and as they compete with more experienced people.
“They’re sort of missing out on the ability to jump into the labor market,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. “It’s not a new phenomenon, but it is a concerning phenomenon.”
CBS Moneywatch
December 8, 2025
Meanwhile, a cost-of-living crisis festers on Main Street. Significantly, this working majority does not set prices or wages, the drivers of cost-of-living conditions.
It’s not an either or situation. “The roots of today’s affordability crisis actually lie not in recent price spikes,” according to Heidi Shierholz, President at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, “but in the long-term suppression of workers’ pay.”
Counterpunch
December 8, 2025
On this episode of The Rick Smith Show, Rick digs into what everyone is getting wrong about the affordability debate with Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute.
The Rick Smith Show
December 8, 2025