“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 In March, Trump rescinded an executive order issued by President Joe Biden that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour and was indexed to inflation, with the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
Features interview with Valerie Wilson on Black federal workers.
WURD Radio
April 28, 2025
Estimates vary on how many jobs have actually been lost. About 700,000 positions were eliminated directly as a result of NAFTA, according to the Economic Policy Institute, and many more as a result of other trade agreements. You can see the manufacturing industry’s decline reflected in union membership. In the 1970s, UAW had a high of 1.5 million members. By 2023, the union had fewer than 400,000 members.
VOX
April 28, 2025
Features interview with Nina Mast.
MSNBC
April 28, 2025