The Department of Health and Human Services set the federal poverty threshold at $15,650 for a single-person household, meaning that in these 21 states, which are concentrated in the South, millions of full-time workers are earning below the poverty line. One in five workers with just one job in those states lives in poverty, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Latin Times
April 30, 2025
The pro-union Economic Policy Institute says the Trump administration has shut down 11 OSHA offices in states with higher workplace fatality rates. And the administration has effectively gotten rid of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which conducts workplace safety research that’s used by OSHA in policymaking, EPI’s overview shows.
Wis Business
April 30, 2025
We are among the most expensive states for child care, according to Visual Capitalist. Child care is considered affordable if it costs no more than 7% of a family’s income. According to the Economic Policy Institute, every family earning their area’s median income pays a bigger percentage than that.
Stamford Advocate
April 30, 2025
“Anyone that Trump appoints should be expected to rule for employers over workers,” said Margaret Poydock, a senior policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. “That completely destroys the independence of the agency, an agency that is meant to protect workers’ organizing and bargaining rights.”
The fight over the National Labor Relations Board, which raises fundamental questions about executive power, has received its fair share of media coverage. Other changes are easier to miss. In March, Trump rescinded an executive order issued by President Joe Biden that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour and was indexed to inflation, with the current minimum set at $17.75. The Economic Policy Institute estimated that the move had raised the wages for nearly 400,000 workers — a gain that Trump has now moved to erase.
Capital & Main
April 30, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) last week compiled a list of “100 ways Trump has hurt workers in his first 100 days,” which includes terminating grants to fight forced and child labor, nominating Crystal Casey to be general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board, and leaving the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service with what one employee recently toldCommon Dreams is “a very skeletal crew.”
Common Dreams
April 30, 2025
Paid sick leave benefits may boost employment, earnings for female workers, and the emotional connection people feel toward their job and the organization, a pair of recent studies cited by the independent, nonprofit Economic Policy Institute show.
In a blog post, the institute notes that access to job-protected paid sick leave allows workers to take time off to seek medical care, recover from illness or injury, or take care of an ailing family member.
Safety and Health Magazine
April 30, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., found infant childcare costs Oregon families $19,000 a year. For perspective, that’s more than what it would cost to send a kid to an in-state college — and that’s just one kid.
Central Oregon Daily
April 28, 2025
“Why would you cut 7,000 employees to save 0.06 percent of the budget from one of the most important agencies?” Suozzi asked.
According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, administrative costs account for less than 1 percent of the SSA’s spending.
Daily Beast
April 28, 2025
Bertucci’s specifically blamed input costs, waning consumer confidence and worsening economic conditions earlier this year, rather than the longer problems in the casual dining sector, for its bankruptcy filing.
Those conditions are related to the macroeconomic policy the Trump administration has implemented since taking office in January, Adam Hersh, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, said in a previous interview with Restaurant Dive. That policy has created a recessionary storm by weakening consumer demand and increasing input costs.
Restaurant Dive
April 28, 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.
Public News Service
April 28, 2025