Thirty states have adopted their own minimum wages above the 2009 federal rate, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). These include Hawley’s home state of Missouri, which increased its baseline to $13.75 and plans to raise it to $15.00 starting January 1, 2026.
Ben Zipperer, senior economist with the EPI, a progressive think tank that supports raising the minimum wage, told Newsweek that a Republican’s sponsorship of the bill “is admission that minimum wages are a very popular policy to correct the widespread problem of low pay.” However he expressed skepticism that the party would “abandon their consistent role as the chief obstacle to federal minimum wage increases.”
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Zipperer said that the hike proposed by Hawley and Welch, or the Democratic bill introduced earlier this year which would raise this incrementally to $17 an hour by 2030, would “unambiguously benefit low wage workers and their families and communities.” He cited a 2024 EPI study which found that most research into the topic has found either no resulting job losses or “only small disemployment effects.”
Newsweek
June 23, 2025
The D.C.-based liberal think tank Economic Policy Institute has said this amounts to a program that exploits and silences migrant workers, replacing year-round workers in the process. In some cases, U.S. prosecutors have accused farmers and recruiters of using the H-2A program to engage in forced labor trafficking.
Palabra (via MSN)
June 23, 2025
…the state decreases funding based on a per-pupil formula. According to the Economic Policy Institute, if just 5% of students in Virginia…[paywall].
The Virginian-Pilot
June 23, 2025
Jennifer Sherer (right), director of the State Worker Power Initiative with the Economic Policy Institute, speaks during the Johnson County manufactured home park press conference June 18.
Corridor Business Journal
June 23, 2025
But for now, the spillover effects from federal layoffs are “enormous” according to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Because federal families can pay a lower than usual rate for child care at these facilities, when they lose their jobs, not only do they have to scramble for work, but also quality, affordable care for their kids.
“Many of these federal workers and federal contractors live paycheck to paycheck,” Gould said. “We don’t know what those federal workers are going to do with their kids. Obviously, they’re going to be looking for other jobs. If they get another job, they’re going to still need to have care for their kids or even when they’re doing job searches, they’re going to need to have care for their kids.”
Marketplace
June 23, 2025
Talent continues to be the top priority for foreign investors. Our metrics remain unchanged from last year — we compared cities based on the size of their labour force, their share of college graduates, the number of universities nearby, the unemployment rate and the freedom of their labour market. Labour market freedom is modelled after the economic freedom index compiled by Canadian think-tank the Fraser Institute and research by Dean Stansel, a professor at Southern Methodist University who also worked on the Fraser Institute’s index.
Sources: Economic Policy Institute, FT Locations, Unionstats.com, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Census
Financial Times
June 23, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a DC-based think tank, in the first three months since Trump assumed office, his administration has shut down nearly a dozen OSHA offices in states with some of the highest workplace fatality rates like Louisiana and Alabama; attempted to close 34 Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) offices in the epicenter of the black lung epidemic; and tried to shutter the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which conducts critical research into workplace injuries and illnesses, laying off hundreds of workers in the process.
Teen Vogue
June 23, 2025
The U.S. economy is doing better than ever, but does the average American get to benefit from the riches? Turns out, not necessarily. Special thanks to:
Features interview with Elise, pay-productivity chart, CEO pay data, and data from the data library.
Johnny Harris (YouTube)
June 23, 2025
Similarly, the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-worker think tank, said in a statement to Sludge that “Carey’s nomination as NLRB General Counsel is certainly another example of Trump’s attacks on workers and the right to organize.”
RealClearPolitics
June 23, 2025
According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, Black and Hispanic individuals are more likely to lean on Medicaid for health coverage.
Black Enterprise
June 23, 2025