Fiscal Times
January 20, 2026
A lack of child care options in New York is costing working families, some of whom are spending 20% to 40% of their annual income on programs, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute.
The average cost of child care is $15,394 a year in New York, the sixth-most expensive state in the nation, the report noted. Child care costs in New York City are among the highest in the nation, ranging from $26,000 to $40,000 per year per child.
The Center Square
January 20, 2026
The expansion of this model to a year-round workforce would effectively establish a new class of permanent, low-wage workers, with few rights and no economic mobility.
“It’s a really horrible idea and a little dystopian to bring in people on a temporary visa to make them ‘permanently temporary’,” says Daniel Costa, the director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute.
“The program was created to fulfill temporary shortages and seasonal jobs. If you want a program that brings in workers for permanent, year-round occupations, you need to bring them in on green cards, which are permanent immigrant visas, so that they can stay and work year round and have a path to citizenship – not be indentured through their visa status to their employer.”
Sentient Media
January 20, 2026
Cites EPI report on mass deportations impact on domestic workers.
NBC News
January 20, 2026
At the same time, the Economic Policy Institute estimated infant care in Ohio costs about $10,400 annually, or $870 a month.
Cleveland.com
January 20, 2026
The Children’s Council of San Francisco estimates that the average cost of childcare in the city is between $20,000 and $30,000 per child each year. And the Economic Policy Institute ranks California fourth out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for most expensive infant care. According to the Institute, infant care for one child would take up more than 18% of a median family’s income in California; and care for two children could take up close to 30% of a family’s income.
The Guardian
January 20, 2026
While this entire event really challenges the limits of free speech in the workplace, I hope it also proves to be a great example of how unions can still protect workers’ rights. Union membership has dropped from a height of 37% of workers in the U.S. in 1957 (the apparent golden age we’re all itching to return to) down to 11% today, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Jalopnik
January 20, 2026
According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, child care already takes up about one-fifth of a median family’s income in California. With our state’s high cost of living, do we really expect them to shoulder any more sudden costs without dire consequences?
LA Times
January 20, 2026
According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, the trade gap between the U.S. and its neighbors has widened significantly, reaching $263 billion in 2025, up from $125 billion in 2020. Despite the president’s stated aim of ushering in an American manufacturing renaissance, producers in the U.S. furloughed over 576,000 jobs since the agreement was signed into law. The nonpartisan think tank asserted that Mexico’s low wages and laxer worker rights laws and environmental standards have facilitated the offshoring of jobs.
Sourcing Journal
January 20, 2026
The Economic Policy Institute just released 47 discrete ways that Trump accelerated the affordability crisis over the past year, including by slashing labor protections that will cut wages, stripping collective-bargaining rights from more workers than any president in history, pausing projects that cost thousands of jobs, imposing tariffs, and of course, cutting trillions in benefits for working families in order to funnel tax cuts to the wealthy. The ongoing surge in health insurance premiums is a direct result of Republican failure to extend Biden-era Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies.
American Prospect
January 20, 2026