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
But that decision comes with a number of tradeoffs. Having one parent stay home may help the family save money on child care, which can cost more than college tuition in more than half of states, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. However, it could negatively impact that parent’s salary prospects or career growth if they later decide to return to work.
CNBC
January 20, 2026
School systems have encountered a similar shortage, tracking a 9.5% decrease in bus drivers from 2019 to 2025, according to the economic policy institute.
Cardinal News (Virginia)
January 20, 2026
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) argues that the prospects for national reparations are currently weak, but there is movement at the local level. They list some 40 localities that had reparations initiatives as of December 2024.
EPI offers a reasonable set of criteria for what constitutes reparations at the state and local levels.
Roanoke Tribune
January 20, 2026
To help clear things up, “Marketplace Morning Report” host Sabri Ben-Achour spoke with Monique Morrissey, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute about what the shortfall actually means. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Sabri Ben-Achour: Right now, how does Social Security pay for itself? Remind us.
Monique Morrissey: Well, about 91% of Social Security outlays, so what they’re spending on benefits, comes directly from taxes on work — on workers — and employers pay the same amount. And that money goes into Social Security and gets spent immediately out for benefits.
Marketplace
January 20, 2026
Giving localities the ability to set their own minimum wage rates above the state and federal levels allows officials to respond to local conditions, says David Cooper, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at EPI. When cities and state officials tie their minimum wage to inflation, a practice known as indexing, they also save themselves from having to vote on the issue repeatedly.
“It’s automatic,” Cooper says. “No one needs to take votes on whether this is going to happen, it’s just on autopilot. And it works well for the business community, too, because they can very easily anticipate what their new wage bill is going to be year to year rather than having to budget for some large increase five years later when lawmakers get around to enacting a raise.”
Governing Magazine
January 20, 2026
Another analysis from the Economic Policy Institute argues that proposals to end Affordable Care Act tax credits will hit Black Americans especially hard.
In 10 major metropolitan areas, such changes could leave over 170,000 people without insurance, drive up annual premiums by roughly $740 million, and increase preventable deaths. Healthcare Finance has noted that premium increases are outpacing wage growth, with Black and Hispanic workers feeling those pressures acutely.
Minnesota Spokesman Recorder
January 20, 2026
Twenty-two states and 66 cities and counties will raise their minimum wage by the end of 2026, with most having instituted the new pay floors on Jan. 1, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
That means more than 8.3 million people have already received a raise, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The institute also noted that there are now more people in states with a pay floor of at least $15 than there are in states that pay the $7.25 federal requirement.
U.S. News & World Report
January 20, 2026
AI Invest
January 20, 2026