Many states have laws that are stricter than the federal standards. But Arkansas, Iowa and more than a dozen other states have pared back child-labor laws since 2021, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank. Lawmakers, nearly all Republicans, have sponsored bills loosening restrictions for teen workers in at least eight states this year, EPI said.
Wall Street Journal
April 28, 2025
JOE BORELLI, FORMER REPUBLICAN LEADER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: No but I’m kind of reflecting back to 2018 when I. Trump’s first round of tariffs happened and he implemented them section, what were they, 232 and 301 tariffs, and we saw the same level of panic. Now, I know the response is going to be things are all different now.
PHILLIP: Well, I think the responses that those were about a tenth of the size of the current tariff.
BORELLI: But we saw the same level of panic. And I went back into my notes, a 2023 report by the Biden administration, the U.S. Trade Task Force said tariffs did actually onshore jobs and reduce imports from China. The Economic Policy Institute said that steel output grow based on the tariff imports, based on the tariffs, and that the other stuff improved as well. So, I mean, I just don’t buy that we can just sit here and panic and go over these things.
CNN
April 28, 2025
But critics have questioned whether the efforts are merely ploys for Trump’s attention, including the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which published a damning review of the efforts earlier this month.
“Several states have proposed DOGE-labelled legislation that will radically restructure government in favor of governors and their appointees at the expense of career civil servants,” EPI’s researchers wrote. “Such efforts have also targeted the independence, authority, and staffing of state agencies.”
“Despite the novel branding, these initiatives are part of the longstanding right-wing mission to capture and consolidate government in service of the wealthy,” they added.
The Hill
April 28, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute, the Pew Research Center, and even the Fed have all published data showing that, in real terms, American wages have been stagnant between the 1970s and the late 2010s. Wages initially declined in real terms until the late 1990s. Since then, wages have risen a bit, but they are only about 10 percent higher than what they were in the 1970s.
Jacobin
April 28, 2025
“Given how erratic they have been so far, it’s going to be very hard to sort of put it all back in the bottle,” said Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Hearst TV
April 28, 2025
The IMF said the world is entering a new era and said the slowdown is due to the president’s unpredictable policies. However, the White House assured the country today that President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda is working.
“It’s basically all about the uncertain tariff policy, and the very high new tariffs, and the trade war that they have ignited,” said Josh Bivens, EPI chief economist.
Hearst TV
April 28, 2025
But the regulatory environment may be changing quickly. The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit focusing on income inequality, workers’ rights and other progressive causes, counted 31 US states that introduced bills to weaken child labor laws from 2021 through 2024.
Bloomberg
April 28, 2025
The average Black unemployment rate in the District of Columbia had improved in recent years, falling below 10% for the first time since the Great Recession, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of government data. Yet African Americans are overrepresented in federal government jobs, and could wind up bearing the brunt of Trump’s cutbacks.
Bloomberg
April 28, 2025
Looking closer at corruption, the Economic Policy Institute reports that the CEO-vs-worker pay ratio peaked in 2021 at 399:1 [290:1 in 2023]. It has increased by over 1,000% since 1978 as compared to average worker pay, which has increased by only 24%. In 1965 the CEO-vs-worker pay ratio was 21:1.
Salt Lake Tribune
April 28, 2025
Features interview with Daniel Costa.
More Perfect Union
April 28, 2025