One Fair Wage added that “one job should be enough to live on” and that “Congress should pass the Living Wage For All Act and make that standard the law.”
…
“That projection is inconsistent with decades of minimum-wage research,” it continued. “The Economic Policy Institute estimates that a federal minimum wage equal to two-thirds of the national median wage would raise pay for nearly 40 million workers. Research from UC Berkeley economist Michael Reich and the Roosevelt Institute finds that ambitious, phased increases at this level raise incomes broadly with little effect on overall employment.”
Fox News
August 24, 2026
Union jobs help close the gap between wages and the cost of living. Workers represented by a union make on average 12% more than people in the same non-union job. A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute estimated that if union membership grew to where it was in the 1950s, the average worker would see a 14.5% raise, or more than $7,000 a year in their wallet annually. Union contracts also often include strong anti-harassment policies and provide safe, confidential grievance procedures for workers.
Idaho Statesman
August 24, 2026
The poll found almost half of Americans thought childcare costs fall below $10,000 but the Economic Policy Institute reported New York childcare costs more than $18,000 per year, more than the cost of in-state tuition at a four-year college.
Public News Service
August 24, 2026
Then, a January analysis by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee revealed that the average American family paid $1,625 in higher costs last year as his policies drove up prices.
That was followed by a February warning from the Economic Policy Institute that Trump’s economic agenda “will make ordinary families reliably poorer in the future.” EPI’s chief economist, Josh Bivens, pointed to the president’s anti-labor policies, cuts to federal spending and jobs, mass deportation efforts, and tariffs—as well as the OBBBA, which gave tax breaks to the rich while stripping healthcare and food assistance from Americans in need.
Common Dreams
August 24, 2026
Economists caution, however, that AI is not yet showing up as a broad collapse in employment. The Dallas Fed said its analysis suggested only a slight effect on the overall unemployment rate so far, and the Economic Policy Institute said rising unemployment among young college graduates and young workers without degrees suggests AI alone is unlikely to explain recent labor market weakness.
Cleveland.com
August 24, 2026
Kelles said income inequality is the primary driver of the housing crisis, citing the Economic Policy Institute’s 2024 report that says top earners saw massive income gains since the 1970s — up to 182% for the top 1% — while wages for the bottom 90% grew 44%. This growing wealth gap leaves average workers unable to afford construction-driven housing costs.
Ithaca Times
August 20, 2026
Today, Petersen—a vocal critic of the current tariff policy and advocate for interventions against tariff evasion—warned the magnitude of tariff dodging is “massive,” and the Trump administration would agree. The report cited a 2020 study by the Economic Policy Institute, which estimated 3.7 million jobs were displaced between 2001 and 2018 as a result of the U.S.-China trade deficit. Author Robert Scott said the deficit increased by $336.5 billion in that period, and this could eventually cost the U.S. between $60 billion and $606 billion in annual GDP losses, the White House claimed.
Fortune
August 17, 2026
A new tool from the Economic Policy Institute calculates the cost of mass deportation.
The tool, originally reported by Axios, uses data from a July spending report that shows Congress or other federal agencies have put more than $268 billion in federal funds toward powering the Trump administration’s deportation agenda until 2029.
Gordon Lafer, a professor at the University of Oregon and a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, analyzed the data to show how that breaks down in each city, county and state — and what it could fund instead.
KJZZ
August 17, 2026
The Economic Policy Institute, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Local Area Unemployment Statistics and Current Population Survey, found that Black unemployment averaged 7.2% nationally during the second quarter of 2026 compared with 3.3% for white workers. Unemployment among Black workers continued to exceed twice the rate recorded for white workers.
However, Washington, D.C. provides an even more striking example.
In EPI’s second-quarter 2026 State Unemployment by Race and Ethnicity analysis, D.C. had the highest overall unemployment rate in the country at 6.1%. The unemployment rate among Black workers in the District was 9.5%, compared with 3.7% among white workers.
Forbes
August 17, 2026