A new Economic Policy Institute calculator gives that contradiction a price tag. It starts with the National Priorities Project’s estimate that the federal government plans to spend $268.9 billion on mass deportation during the second Trump administration, then allocates the cost according to each community’s share of federal income taxes. By that method, Columbus’s share is about $535.4 million, or roughly $1,760 for each Columbus tax filer who owes federal income tax after credits.
Columbus Underground
September 8, 2026
An Economic Policy Institute calculator estimates that Huron County taxpayers will shoulder nearly $20 million of the federal government’s deportation spending during the remaining 21/2 years of President Donald Trump’s termabout $960 for each local federal income-tax filer who owes tax. The calculator applies Huron County’s share of federal income taxes to a national estimate of $268.9 billion in deportation spending. At a time when families are squeezed and local employers need workers, residents deserve to ask what that money will buy.
Sandusky Register
September 8, 2026
The math behind that decision isn’t subtle. According to the Economic Policy Institute, public school teachers earned 25.2% less in weekly wages than comparable college graduates in 2025 — more than four times the 6.1% pay penalty teachers faced in 1996. Even counting benefits, teachers are still behind by 14.5%. Over the last three decades, inflation-adjusted teacher wages have actually fallen 6.2%, while wages for comparable college graduates rose 28.8%.
Forbes
September 8, 2026
There is a major bus driver shortage across the nation. The Economic Policy Institute reports there are still 21,000 fewer school bus drivers on the road than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The key reason for that shortage is low pay. In 2023, the average school bus driver earned 43% less than the average weekly pay for all workers. Some districts have even tried to combat this by offering bonuses and other incentives.
FOX 54 (Alabama)
September 8, 2026
The survey results followed a report released late last month by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Economic Policy Institute that suggests leaving the field could lead to a pay boost. Sylvia Allegretto, a senior economist at CEPR and research associate at EPI, found that “in 2025, the teacher pay penalty stood at an estimated 25.2%—meaning teachers earned about a quarter less than comparable college graduates in other professions.”
Common Dreams
September 8, 2026
The average cost of child care is $15,394 a year in New York, the sixth-most expensive state in the nation, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute. A typical family in New York would have to spend 39.8% of its income on child care for an infant and a 4-year-old, according to the report. Child care costs in New York City are even higher.
The Center Square
September 8, 2026
The Social Security Administration’s actuaries analyze the trust fund’s solvency over a 75-year period. When policymakers implemented the 1983 amendments to the program, the actuaries knew the changes would help keep the program solvent, “but they knew eventually it would need changes,” said Monique Morrissey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
MarketWatch
September 8, 2026
More and more stuff just seems to be out of their grasp, because their wages have not kept up,” Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, …
Bangor Daily News
September 8, 2026
Billions of Alabama tax dollars are being spent on mass deportation. It’s enough to fund nearly 10,000 new teacher salaries in the state, or 12,000 firefighters, or 8,000 nurses.
That’s according to a new tool from the Economic Policy Institute. Its Cost of Deportations Calculator shows how much federal tax money from nearly every area in the nation is set to be spent on mass deportation during President Donald Trump’s second term.
AL.com
September 8, 2026
Definitions of what makes a working-class voter differ depending on who you ask. If it’s education — those who have less than a bachelor’s degree — then nearly half of the working class is women; in parts of the country, most of them are also people of color, said Valerie Wilson, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute who has studied working-class people. If working-class voters are those working low-wage jobs, then they are already majority women, who occupy two-thirds of the 40 lowest-paid occupations.
“The sort of traditional view of ‘working class’ was a White man in a hard hat, a construction worker, maybe someone who was in manufacturing,” Wilson said. That’s gone now as those jobs have disappeared and service-sector jobs dominated by women have become the primary field for people without college degrees.
19th News
September 8, 2026