The minimum wage is also evolving. While the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour, there is significant variability across states. The Economic Policy Institute noted that the minimum wage in New York and California increased to $16.50 in 2025 from $16.00 in 2024.
ADP
April 7, 2025
“It’s probably going to fall heaviest on small farmers and ranchers, small businesses across the country who are going to face both the impacts of increased prices, as well as the retaliation,” said Adam Hersh, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Hearst TV
April 7, 2025
“[T]ariffs are a regressive tax, meaning people with lower incomes will pay a larger share of their earnings in taxes than high-income people,” Senior Economist Adam Hersh and Chief Economist Josh Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute wrote in a March 28 research post. “Tariffs are essentially a consumption tax, and consumption as a share of income tends to fall as incomes rise.”
CBS Moneywatch
April 7, 2025
“Consumers are about to get punched in the face by the president, and there’s really nothing that they can do to prepare for that,” Senior Economist Adam Hersh of the Economic Policy Institute said. “This could lead to recession in 2025, unless we change course, there’s no question about it.”
Hearst TV
April 7, 2025
But tariffs are not fundamentally unwise. “The reality is that tariffs can be, and have been, effective policy tools for promoting industrial development when they’re done in a targeted strategic way and when they are matched with other complementary policies,” said Adam Hersh, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
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This was “a lesson learned painfully during the COVID-19 pandemic when everyone was scrambling to source personal protective equipment (PPE), respirators, and critical medicines unavailable domestically at the necessary scale,” Hersh wrote in an article with Josh Bivens, the chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Tariffs, in other words, can help ensure that there isn’t a monopoly over crucial imports so that supply chains aren’t completely disrupted in the event of war or, as we learned in 2020, a pandemic.
VOX
April 7, 2025
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
Live interview with Valerie on the economy/tariffs, recessions, and the impact on communities of color.
CNN
April 7, 2025
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
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