Media clips

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• Democrats unveil legislation raising federal minimum wage to $17 an hour

  The bill would raise the minimum wage to $17 by 2030 according to the Economic Policy Institute. The current federally mandated hourly wage is $7.25 and has not increased since 2009.

  The Hill April 9, 2025
• Trump overstates the number of U.S. factories lost since NAFTA while defending tariff hikes

  “Since the very beginning of NAFTA, our country lost 90,000 factories,” Mr. Trump said during his Rose Garden speech on April 2, as he announced a host of tariff hikes. The president repeated the claim in his Monday remarks. 

  While the U.S. has seen a decline in the number of factories, the claim of 90,000 factories lost appears to be based on outdated data and includes small facilities with only a few employees.

  The 90,000 figure matches a 2020 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, which found that there was a net loss of about 91,000 manufacturing establishments between 1997 and 2018.

  However, the analysis relied on Census Bureau data that was significantly revised in 2021, the group told CBS News. The updated figures show a net loss of about 70,500 manufacturing establishments from 1997 to 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. 

  CBS News April 9, 2025
• Democrats push bill to raise federal minimum wage to $17 an hour

  Nearly 40 million workers in the United States earn the equivalent of less than $17 per hour, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The EPI estimates that more than 22 million workers in the U.S. will see their yearly wages increase by an average of $3,200 if the legislation passes.

  The Center Square April 9, 2025
• Sens. Britt, Tuberville vote for Senate Republicans’ budget plan

  “No matter how these tax cuts are financed, the result will hurt most working families, especially low-income households,” Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute argues. “The most damaging way to finance TCJA extensions would be with spending cuts for programs like SNAP or Medicaid.”

  Alabama Political Reporter April 7, 2025
• Trump calls tariff madness a ‘beautiful thing to behold’ as global markets crater

  “While the stock market isn’t the economy, the stock market declines we have seen in recent weeks are genuinely worrying,” wrote Bivens, the chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “They are a symptom of much larger dysfunctional macroeconomic policy that will likely soon start showing up in higher unemployment and slower wage growth for the vast majority.”

  AlterNet April 7, 2025
• How Contracting Work Became a Race to the Bottom

  Many tradesmen whom Whelan had known for years left the industry, and when residential building recovered in the 2010s, few of them returned. The financial incentive just wasn’t there anymore. In 2014, the Economic Policy Institute found that the real hourly wages of residential building workers remained 4.2 percent below their 2009 levels — even though wages in the rest of the private sector had largely recovered.

  New York Times April 7, 2025
• Why More Millennials Are Opting for a ‘One and Done’ Family

  Child care can be more expensive than rent and in-state college tuition in many states. (Updated resource calculates the cost of child care in every state. Economic Policy Institute. March 5, 2025.)

  Parents Magazine April 7, 2025
• Valerie Wilson on CNN

  Live interview with Valerie on the economy/tariffs, recessions, and the impact on communities of color. 

  CNN April 7, 2025
• When does the no tax on overtime bill pass? start date and implications

  The Economic Policy Institute argues that the bill is nothing more than a gimmick aimed to favor high earners and employers who can game the system. According to the Yale Budget Lab, the No Tax on Overtime Bill could cost $866 billion over the decade and may increase to $1.3 trillion if payroll taxes are also included. That’s a hefty price tag the Federal government will have to pay in the end.

  HR Digest April 7, 2025
• White House Cites Tariff Reports That Undermine Its Own Claims

  Citing an article by the Economic Policy Institute, the White House says “The tariffs implemented by President Trump during his first term ‘clearly show[ed] no correlation with inflation’ and had only a fleeting effect on overall prices.”

  It’s a mistake to confuse price increases for tariffed goods with inflation, which refers to overall price level increases. The 2018-2019 tariffs applied to imports worth less than 2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product and were phased in gradually. No, the tariffs did not drive overall inflation, as they were not large or disruptive enough to do so, but the tariffs clearly raised import prices and led to higher prices for domestic alternatives, which hurt Americans. 

  Reason April 7, 2025