According to the Economic Policy Institute’s 100 days, 100 ways report, the administration has taken steps to make most US workers and their families substantially poorer in the coming years. Trump has rescinded an executive order that gave 390,000 low-wage federal contractors a living wage, terminated DOL grants that fight forced and child labor and promote workers’ rights, delayed the enforcement of a rule intended to protect coal miners from exposure to silica, and more.
KALW San Francisco
September 2, 2025
A 2023 report by the Economic Policy Institute found that states across the country are weakening child labor laws at the same time that violations are on the rise. The number of children working in violation of state law increased by 37 percent in the past year. Instead of cracking down on the violators, many states are weakening the laws.
KRWG Public Radio (New Mexico)
September 2, 2025
Economists warned of broader risks if political control expands. The Economic Policy Institute said “presidential capture of the Fed” would mean interest rates are based not on data but on “the whims of the president.” Elizabeth Wilkins, a former senior official at the Federal Trade Commission, said weakening the Fed “will make markets less stable and fuel inflationary pressures.”
MPA Magazine
September 2, 2025
“Investors will demand higher premiums to hold on to U.S. Treasury bonds (and other long-term bonds), because without faith that the Federal Reserve will tamp down inflationary pressures when they appear, they will need reassurance—in the form of higher long-term interest rates—to hold on to these investments,” wrote Heidi Shierholz, president of the progressive Economic Policy Institute think tank, in a commentary.
Investopedia
September 2, 2025
“Presidential capture of the Fed would signal to decision-makers throughout the economy that interest rates will no longer be set on the basis of sound data or economic conditions — but instead on the whims of the president,” the Economic Policy Institute said in a statement.
“Confidence that the Fed will respond wisely to future periods of macroeconomic stress — either excess inflation or unemployment — will evaporate,” it added.
NBC News
September 2, 2025
Both before and after the pandemic, support for unions among the general public has been rising, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. That coincides with a rise in labor actions within the waste and recycling industry, experts say.
Waste Dive
September 2, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank that tracks minimum wage data nationwide, the current highest minimum wage in the country is $21.16 in Burien, Washington. Several other municipalities in that area — including Seattle; the suburban cities Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila; and King County — have their own minimum wages north of $20 per hour.
Portland Press Herald
September 2, 2025
“The research shows very clearly that when you deport immigrant workers, native-born workers lose jobs as well,” said David Cooper, director of state policy and research at the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, a think tank affiliated with the labor movement. And the Economic Policy Institute report predicts that Trump’s mass deportation effort — if implemented — could eventually cost U.S.-born workers 2.6 million jobs, with the biggest disruptions expected in Florida, Texas and California, states heavily reliant on immigrant labor. That’s because the hiring of immigrant workers helps support job creation for native-born workers, Cooper said.
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That legislation also heavily favors the wealthy, with 65% of benefits going to the top 10% of earners, according to the Penn-Wharton budget model, a nonpartisan research initiative. The lowest-income households are expected to lose out due to cuts in benefits, including Medicaid and SNAP. “This bill is a transfer of money from the poorest households in America to the richest households in America, full stop,” Cooper with the Economic Policy Institute said.
Capital & Main
September 2, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, CEO pay increased 1,085 percent from 1978 to 2023, while the average worker’s earnings rose 24 percent.
The Columbian
September 2, 2025
In 2019, the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank focused on economic policy, found that of 3,061 counties in the nation, Saratoga County ranked 28th in income inequality, just three spaces below San Francisco.
Albany Times Union
September 2, 2025