In his first 100 days, Trump has fired thousands of federal workers, made it easier to fire civil servants, reduced the minimum wage for federal contractors, attacked workers’ union and collective bargaining rights, and canceled grants for programs to combat forced and child labor around the world according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Cape Cod Times
May 5, 2025
“The labor force participation of parents with young children is weaker in the United States than in many of our peer nations, likely because of our lack of paid parental leave policies as well as the high cost of child care,” according to analysts at the Economic Policy Institute.
Salon
May 5, 2025
David Cooper, an analyst for the think tank Economic Policy Institute, told Stateline that the measure would give money away to the wealthiest people in Missouri.
“It is so egregious in just how grossly concentrated the benefits of the [Missouri] proposal would go to the richest people in the state and shift the state’s tax system to really privilege the owners of wealth over people who are earning a regular paycheck,” Cooper said.
Heartland Signal
May 5, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute, American workers have become 81% more productive since 1979 and pay has only increased by 29%. Where is that extra money going? The CEOs, the boards, the wealthy, and not us.) I believe any union win would positively affect Syracuse’s economy.
Syracuse.com
May 5, 2025
Although the worker, Raven Schvartz, was allegedly fired for tardiness, the 20-year-old barista and her coworkers suspect she was unlawfully fired in part due to her leading role in helping to form a union at their store last year. Under federal labor law, it’s generally illegal for an employer to fire, discipline, or otherwise retaliate against a worker for union activity—although an estimated 41% of employers are charged with breaking labor law during union campaigns anyway, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Creative Loafing Tampa
May 5, 2025
While teacher salaries rose 3.3% in the 2023-24 school year, that increase fails to keep pace with inflation, leaving too many educators straining under the burden of a rising cost of living. In fact, from 2014-15 to 2023-24, inflation-adjusted teacher pay in Florida has dropped nearly 13 percent. The wage gap between teachers and other similarly educated professionals also persists, with Florida teachers earning just $0.78 for every dollar compared to their peers, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Daytona Beach News-Journal
May 5, 2025
As the Economic Policy Institute recently explained, Social Security personnel “protect a trove of personally identifiable information.”
“Sensitive information stored in SSA databases includes not only Social Security numbers, but also detailed earnings, tax, banking, and medical records,” the group observed. “Until DOGE entered SSA headquarters, this information was carefully protected, with limited access granted to specially trained employees only for specific purposes.”
Common Dreams
May 5, 2025
But how does one define “merit” when Donald Trump started his company on a million-dollar loan from his father? What is “excellence” when the Economic Policy Institute finds that parental income is the leading predictor of a student’s academic success? What is “intelligence” if someone scores lower on the English portion of a standardized test but is smart enough to speak two or three languages?
Northern Express
May 5, 2025
Dave Kamper at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C., said that for cities of New Orleans’ size, spending approximately half of ARPA money on revenue replacement is fairly typical.
“One of the great successes of ARPA is that they just let the local authorities make the decisions that made the most sense to them,” Kamper told Verite News.
Kamper noted that money used for revenue replacement was probably most impactful in its ability to maintain or even build the public sector workforce.
Verite News
May 5, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute’s 2024 budget rankings show California is one of the most expensive states to live in. The institute’s Family Budget Calculator measures the income a four-person household needs to maintain a modest yet adequate standard of living, compared with the federal poverty line and the Supplemental Poverty Measure. All but four of California’s 58 counties were in the highest monthly cost brackets.
Orange County Register
May 5, 2025