When I think about labor and labor economics, I think Economic Policy Institute. So, my gift to you on this Labor Day is to briefly tell or remind you about EPI’s essential role in our economic debate and to get your butt over to their robust website, if you’re not there already—and not just on Labor Day, but everyday. The institute is a spry 40 year-old this year, and they’re at the top of their game.
It’s where I cut my teeth as a junior economist, working with EPI’s former president Larry Mishel and many co-authors on numerous volumes of “The State of Working America.”
There are three ways I’d summarize foundations upon which the Institute is built.
—First and foremost, EPI puts bargaining power in the center of their analysis.
Jared Bernstein's Substack
September 8, 2026
School bus driver employment remained 9.5% below 2019 levels in August 2025, even as inflation-adjusted hourly wages rose 4.2% over the previous year, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis. The employment figures are based on 12-month rolling averages of federal survey data.
“The wages are simply too low,” Hilary Wething, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute told FOX Business, identifying pay as the primary reason the workforce has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Fox Business
September 8, 2026
At the same time, the Economic Policy Institute’s new Cost of Deportations Calculator estimates that federal taxpayers in Toledo will contribute roughly $74 million…[paywall].
Toledo Blade
September 8, 2026
05:07 Economic Policy Institute’s Cost of Deportations Calculator
The Valley Labor Report
September 8, 2026
The Economic Policy Institute’s new cost-of-deportations calculator estimates that Erie County taxpayers will contribute about $37 million toward the $268.9 billion committed to mass deportation and detention through fiscal 2029. That is money earned here and committed to a strategy that can shrink the workforce on which local growth depends.
Sandusky Register
September 8, 2026
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that teachers earned about 25% less than comparable college graduates and other professions in 2025. The numbers in Missouri and Oklahoma are especially high. In Missouri, the gap is nearly 36%, the second highest in the nation, and Oklahoma falls in the top 10 at 33%. Sylvia Allegretto is the author of this report. She calls this discrepancy in pay the teacher pay gap.
KUAF Public Radio (Arkansas)
September 8, 2026
“The State of Working Wisconsin 2026” tells a good news-bad news story for Wisconsin’s workforce, but one that could become less favorable under current conditions.
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The report cites research from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., that concludes the tariff policies have done little to change the nation’s balance of trade with other countries, while reducing both imports and exports.
Wisconsin Examiner
September 8, 2026
Child advocates said a regulatory change could ultimately undermine protections for young workers. Nina Mast, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, said states have been rolling back workplace protections for children since the pandemic.
In 2023, Iowa changed its laws to allow teens to work up to six hours during the school week until 9 p.m. and until11 p.m. on non-school nights.
Ohio passed a broad education bill this year that also lets 14- and 15-year-olds work until 9 p.m. on school nights after Gov. Mike DeWine (R) vetoed a standalone bill in 2025.
Indiana, Washington, Florida, and West Virginia have also loosened laws. Various measures allow teens to work more hours, lower the age to serve alcohol, and remove reporting requirements.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all that the Trump DOL would propose a rule that is much more favorable to business interests than it is to minor workers and their families,” Mast said. “This is an agenda we’ve seen play out on the state level for several years now.”
Bloomberg Law
September 8, 2026
The cost of childcare in the U.S has risen faster than inflation in the past few years. The Economic Policy Institute found childcare is more expensive than public college tuition in 38 states and Washington, D.C.
Marketplace
September 8, 2026
North Carolina teachers earn about 75 cents for every dollar made by other college-educated professionals with similar experience, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.
Wilmington Star News
September 8, 2026