According to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, Spanberger’s amended bill so heavily weakened the collective bargaining rights initially passed by the general assembly that it would “lock Virginia into an unstable, ineffective system in which collective bargaining would remain merely ‘optional’”.
The Guardian
May 18, 2026
Nina Mast, policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, said limited staffing has reduced OSHA’s ability to proactively enforce protections.
“A lot of their enforcement activity is really reliant on worker complaints,” she said. “There’s really no deterrent effect anymore because there’s so little capacity to do these inspections.”
Mountain State Spotlight
May 18, 2026
Thursday: The Economic Policy Institute and the Roosevelt Institute host a virtual discussion on the minimum wage at 1 p.m.
Politico Morning Money
May 18, 2026
“Now with inflation rising, you would expect people to try to leverage and get more wage increases or try to get better offers,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. But workers aren’t quitting at high rates.
The Washington Post
May 18, 2026
Childcare for one infant now costs more than public college tuition in most states, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Our National Consumer Unit teamed up with Hearst stations across the country to investigate what’s driving rising costs, how families are adapting and where parents may be able to find relief. From long waitlists to parents leaving the workforce, our team examines how the growing crisis is reshaping family life across America.
Hearst Television
May 18, 2026
The Fed’s survey isn’t the only indicator that Black people are consistently taking a larger share of the brunt of Trump’s mishandling of the economy. According to the Economic Policy Institute, in the first quarter of 2026, “the Black unemployment rate (7.6%) was 1.2 percentage points higher than in the first three months of the second Trump administration,” and “Black men’s employment-population (EPOP) ratio decreased by 1.7 percentage points (from 60.5% to 58.8%) since the first quarter of 2025, with noncollege graduates driving this decline.”
News One
May 18, 2026
There were more than 350,000 farmworkers in the U.S. under the H-2A visa program last year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning, pro-union think tank. Those temporary, seasonal, foreign-born workers are paid according to an “adverse effect wage rate,” a state- or region-specific minimum wage rate that only applies to H-2A visa holders, set by the Department of Labor. In theory, the adverse effect wage rate is not supposed to undercut the wages of domestic farm workers.
Courthouse News Service
May 18, 2026
I understand salary isn’t everything. But it’s a lot if a young teacher is coming out of college with a $75,000 to $100,000 loan debt. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average starting salary for teachers is 73 cents for every dollar earned by other similarly degreed professions. This “teacher pay penalty” contributes to growing shortage of highly trained professionals willing to take a vow of poverty.
Bleeding Heartland (Iowa)
May 18, 2026
The Economic Policy Institute calculated that Virginia’s public sector employees earn on average 26.7% less than their private sector counterparts with similar education and experience, the second-largest gap in the nation. The research also indicates that Virginia has the fourth-lowest public sector unionization rate in the country.
El Tiempo Latino
May 18, 2026
.. Economic Policy Institute. That has created a sense of urgency among younger workers to find places where they have a better chance of landing a job …
The State
May 18, 2026