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
An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute finds that increasing the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour by 2030 would affect one million workers in Pennsylvania and more than 22 million workers nationwide.
Keystone State News Connection
May 1, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), CEOs were paid 290 times more than the average worker in 2023 — compared to 21 times as much in 1965.
Entrepreneur
May 1, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit think tank headed by union leaders, estimates a family of one adult and one child in Milwaukee County needs at least $73,721 “to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
May 1, 2025
- Teacher pay gap. Compared to other college-educated professionals with similar experience, teachers in Kentucky only earn 75 cents on the dollar in comparison. (Economic Policy Institute, September 2024)
WBKO (Kentucky)
May 1, 2025
Nina Mast, policy and economic analyst with Economic Policy Institute, evaluated the issue in a report titled “Forced prison labor in the “Land of the Free,” and joined us to share more.
Urban flooding has long plagued the Treme neighborhood in New Orleans. Now residents are taking matters into their own hands.
WWNO (Louisiana NPR)
May 1, 2025