Even if firms do make more investments, that may produce greater increases in manufacturing output than employment, notes Adam Hersh, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research center. Even “if we had big new investments in manufacturing capacity, they wouldn’t be employing that many workers,” Hersh predicts, since any new plants will be heavily automated.
Methodology: The American Dream for this study is defined as a married couple who own a home and a car, have two children and a pet. The data included was sourced from the U.S. Census American Community Survey, the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, Zillow Home Value Index, the Federal Reserve, ASPCA’s Annaul Pet Costs, the Economic Policy Institute’s Childcare Costs by State.
It is far from a secret that Black women work harder than nearly any other group in this country, with a report by the nonprofit Institute for Women’s Policy Research showing that 80 percent of Black mothers are the breadwinners in their households and another report by the Economic Policy Institute stating that half of African American female workers are moms.
The minimum wage for Virginia was sourced from the Economic Policy Institute as $12.41, and by assuming the worker works a full 40 hour work week and works 52 weeks a year, the average minimum wage salary can be calculated.
Even if we ignore the use of H-1B visas for non-specialized roles that could easily be filled domestically, such as customer service workers or associate accountants, truly specialized employees who are hired through this visa program are routinely paid less than their American counterparts. As the Economic Policy Institute found, nearly all H-1B employers (including Big Tech firms) use and abuse the visa program to pay migrant workers “well below market wages.”
Agribusinesses are not the only ones benefiting from vulnerable laborers. The H-2B visa program is used by hospitality and tourism, landscaping, construction, forestry and seafood processing, industries with “extensive wage theft and lawbreaking by employers,” according to the Economic Policy Institute. The number of these visas are also set to increase in 2025.
On the other hand, low-income workers receiving higher wages will stimulate the economy with their increased spending power. And, even more aligned with this administration’s cost-cutting mission, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, raising the federal minimum wage to just $12 an hour could reduce public assistance expenditures by $17 billion per year.
Trump’s order to dismantle the Department of Education claims that state governments can take over federal responsibilities, but experts warn this could lead to higher-need districts no longer receiving the funding needed to serve students. “Absent the Department of Education to ensure fairness in funding allocation for programs like Title I, it’s unclear how states will handle the disbursement on their own, which could widen inequalities in education,” explains Hilary Wething, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Advocates have also begun raising the alarm over protections and funding provided under IDEA being under threat.
The Economic Policy Institute estimates teachers today suffer a 26.4% wage penalty and a 17.0% penalty when employee benefits are included (Allegretto, 2023). As increasing teacher turnover, a dwindling teacher pipeline, and worsening teacher morale continue, many public schools’ darkening financial horizons add to the worry.