“There has been a general trend toward working more at older ages,” said Monique Morrissey, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. ”But it was interrupted by COVID. And some of those people came back, but a lot of them didn’t.”
USA Today
October 7, 2026
Two decades into the NAFTA experiment, the Economic Policy Institute’s Jeff Faux explained: “By establishing the principle that U.S. corporations could relocate production elsewhere and sell back into the United States, NAFTA undercut the bargaining power of American workers, which had driven the expansion of the middle class since the end of World War II.”
The result, said Faux, was decades of “stagnant wages and the upward redistribution of income, wealth and political power.”
Capital Times
October 7, 2026
Elise Gould, the senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, called out “the notable weakness” in the U.S. economy.
“Payroll employment growth has averaged 50,000 over the last three months, but it continues to be relatively volatile,” she said in her analysis of the new reportOpen in a new tab. “Four months of jobs losses over the last year, while some notable gains recorded as well. Economic uncertainty may be at play in the latest spell of weakness and downward revisions.”
World At Work
October 7, 2026
But even when workers are treated as employees with rights, those rights are violated with stunning frequency. A 2014 estimate from the Economic Policy Institute places wage theft at $50 billion per year, more than other forms of theft.
Talking Points Memo
October 7, 2026
As the cost of living keeps rising while Americans’ paychecks fail to keep pace, Jon is joined by labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards to break down where our economy went so wrong for so many. Together, they explore how decades of policy choices and corporate practices have weakened workers’ leverage and channeled gains toward those at the top—and lay out a vision for how to rebalance the economy so that workers share more fairly in the prosperity they help create.
Kathryn and Jon discuss EPI’s pay-productivity chart and how EPI was her first job out of college.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
October 7, 2026
Twenty to 25 years ago, Colvin says, only 10 to 20 percent of companies had such clauses. While some companies, like Microsoft, choose to forgo such policies, more and more are implementing them. The Economic Policy Institute reported that in 2017, 55 percent of American workers were subject to mandatory arbitration. Some projections estimate the number today is more than 80 percent.
USA Today
October 7, 2026
Teachers earn on average about 73 cents on the dollar relative to comparable college graduates, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). This “wage penalty” has increased in recent years. Inflation-adjusted wages went down by more than $46 per week for teachers over the past decade and up more than $220 per week for other college graduates, EPI found.
Governing
October 7, 2026
“It’s just really hard for workers to enter or reenter the labor market,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg
October 7, 2026
“Slower wage growth means that with higher prices, workers and their families continue to find it difficult to make ends meet,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a commentary.
Investopedia
October 7, 2026
Whether or not one supports efforts to reshore industry, tariffs are failing to have the desired effect. Libertarian and free trade groups are long time opponents to tariffs, but even labor organizations are sounding the alarm over the failure of tariffs to achieve the desired effects. The pro-union Economic Policy Institute, trade associations like the Steel Tank Institute/Steel Plate Fabricators Association, and even the Reshoring Initiative, a group with the core mission of reshoring jobs, are reporting on how tariffs have yet to spur the industrial boom Trump wants.
Real Clear Markets
October 7, 2026