Meanwhile, most people within the bottom 80% of the income distribution rely on wages for wealth accumulation. Wages don’t grow nearly as quickly as assets. For instance, the S&P 500 has doubled over the past five years. On the other hand, wage growth increased by 15.3% for the lowest earners over the past five years, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis.
Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance)
September 29, 2025
Samuel Gregg makes a fine case for why “H-1B Visas Are Good for U.S. Workers” (op-ed, Sept. 22). But there is an even more fundamental problem with President Trump’s proposed $100,000 fee: The policy is based on bad research. Mr. Trump’s order evidently cites an Economic Policy Institute study claiming employers systematically underpay H-1B workers. But to arrive at that conclusion, the authors ignore that H-1B workers are, on average, much younger and earlier in their careers than their U.S. counterparts. Adjusted for age and experience, they are paid significantly more than similar native-born workers.
Wall Street Journal
September 29, 2025
According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, average hourly wages in industries employing H-2B visa workers were as much as 22% lower than national average hourly wages. The H-2B program is used for nonagricultural temporary workers, primarily in landscaping, construction and hospitality industries.
The Center Square
September 29, 2025
The White House has defended the new H-1B visa application fee, stating it is intended to level the playing field for U.S. workers, who it said are being “replaced with lower-paid foreign labor.” These claims that H-1B workers are underpaid, and that their hiring leads to the underemployment of U.S. workers, were supported by a 2021 report from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI) think tank.
“[T]he abuses of the program have been many,” EPI’s report found, “include[ing] vastly underpaying workers, laying off U.S. workers and replacing them with much lower-paid H-1B workers, forcing U.S. workers to train their H-1B replacements as a condition of receiving severance and unemployment insurance, and cheating the H-1B lottery to acquire additional visas.”
New York Amsterdam News
September 29, 2025
Farm labor contractors are the fastest-growing segment of farm employment, and they account for one-fourth of all federal wage and hour violations in the agricultural sector, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.
Prism Reports
September 29, 2025
A study by Investopedia calculated the price tag from eight categories considered quintessential to the classic American dream, including buying new cars, homeownership, marriage, kids and retirement. The financial journalism organization used data from several sources, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economic Policy Institute and industry research organizations.
The Oklahoman
September 29, 2025
The program has attracted bipartisan attacks from critics who say it lets US companies hire foreign workers for less than they’d pay US workers of equal skill.
“I think there are better ways to fix the program,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington
Costa said that while the current law requires H-1B workers be paid the “prevailing wage,” it also allows four different tiers of pay for workers of varying skill levels. He said many employers assign even their best foreign workers to the lower pay tiers. That saves them thousands of dollars per worker, compared to what they’d have to pay US citizens of equal skill.
Rather than hike the visa fee, Costa favors requiring companies to pay all H-1B workers at the highest tier. Or, adjust the lottery system to include preferences for higher-paying jobs. Employers who promised to pay the top tier would get first crack at the visas.
Boston Globe
September 29, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute, in a 2021 report, found that thousands of visa holders working at one of the leading subcontracting firms, which provided visa workers to U.S. corporations such as Disney, FedEx, Google, and others, appear to have been underpaid by $95 million annually.
The Detroit News
September 29, 2025
Racine County Eye
September 29, 2025
When we look at the top 1%, it’s clear which group has profited the most. According to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, the top 1% of U.S. wage earners took home 12.4% of all U.S. income as of 2023. While this inequality fell for that year thanks to a strong labor market, it remains a persistent issue: Wages for the top 1% have close to tripled since 1979, while those for the bottom 90% of earners have climbed by only 44%.
Investopedia
September 29, 2025