GONZALEZ: Adewale is a labor economics researcher at the Economic Policy Institute. But actually seeing the European attitude toward work in person felt different. And it made Adewale think of this report he worked on a few years back.
MAYE: The name of the report is “No Vacation Nation,”
GONZALEZ: “No Vacation Nation.”
MAYE: Very, very on the nose.
NPR Planet Money
May 26, 2026
Union Democrat
May 26, 2026
A new report is out on some of the top companies who have spent millions fighting their own workers.
And one Iowa company is high up on that list for trying to bust a new healthcare union in Des Moines.
Iowa Starting Line
May 26, 2026
Supporters argue that Oklahoma’s minimum wage, being stuck at $7.25 an hour, is not enough to pay for such basic living expenses as groceries, gas and housing. At $7.25 an hour, they say it adds up to only $20 a year more than the federal poverty level. Sixteen years ago, it was 40% more than the minimum.
They cite calculations from the Economic Policy Institute that say 319,000 working Oklahomans and more than 200,000 children would directly benefit from increasing the minimum wage. Workers would have more spendable income, small businesses would have less turnover, poverty rates would decrease, eviction rates would fall, state and local economies would improve, and communities would be strengthened. An increased hourly wage ensures that workers entrusted with our loved ones, such as home health care workers, childcare staff and teachers’ assistants, could make a basic living.
They also point to studies that find that raising the minimum wage has little or no effect on employment levels and that any increase in consumer prices has typically not been large enough to drive consumers away. The phased-in approach also provides businesses with a definitive timeline to adjust their plans, making SQ 832 a “win-win” for employers as well as employees.
Oklahoma Constitution
May 26, 2026
Brown, who regularly works on these cases, said the number regressed last year. Forbes has reported that the gap is widening and the left-wing Economic Policy Institute said women were paid 18.6% less hourly than men on average in 2025.
KCRG (Iowa)
May 26, 2026
Bouncing around from daycare to summer camps to relatives’ houses can easily add up. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual cost of full-time child care in Florida ranges from $9,548 to $13,021, depending on the children’s ages.
Fort Myers News-Press
May 26, 2026
Tax cuts aren’t the only reason for this growing disparity. Income inequality has “skyrocketed” over the past three-and-a-half decades due to “intentional policy choices that suppressed wages for typical families to accelerate income growth at the top,” according to the Economic Policy Institute (6). By its calculations, middle-class household incomes “would be roughly $30,000 higher today if their incomes had simply kept pace with average income growth since 1979.”
MoneyWise
May 26, 2026
In a recent analysis of the detailed government data, economists at the Economic Policy Institute noted that the wage boost that workers with a bachelor’s degree receive relative to less-educated workers, while still substantial, has slipped, falling to about 55% last year versus about 63% in 2015. That could be because the number of workers with college degrees keeps rising. As of March, about 42% of U.S. employees had a bachelor’s degree or higher, versus about 36% a decade earlier.
Wall Street Journal
May 26, 2026
City of lost jobs: A new study from the Economic Policy Institute confirms what we already knew, convicted felon and President Donald Trump’s policies are disproportionately impacting employment in the D.C. area and hitting Black workers the hardest. EPI reports that the region has 115,000 fewer jobs than it did before Trump V2, losing more than 53,800 federal employees and others laid off from contractors working for government agencies and those working at nonprofits or research institutions receiving federal grants. Minus two points, one for racist policies and one for gutting jobs in your own backyard.
Washington City Paper
May 26, 2026
NPER’s study echoes an analysis released last month by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which found that unemployment for US-born workers has increased since the start of Trump’s second term, as the federal government has carried out its draconian deportation operations.
“Claims that mass deportations have helped US-born workers are simply inconsistent with the data,” EPI wrote. “This is no surprise, given that economic research has repeatedly shown that increased immigration enforcement harms everyone in the labor market, including US-born workers.”
Common Dreams
May 26, 2026