Longest noted that the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that 1.2 million North Carolinians make below $15 an hour.
NC Newsline
May 4, 2026
A new report on worker misclassification has singled out construction, both for the scale of the problem and the magnitude of its impact in the industry.
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“When employers illegally misclassify their workers, they are able to substantially reduce their labor costs, which gives these unscrupulous employers an unfair advantage over law-abiding businesses,” Mast said. “This behavior by unscrupulous firms puts pressure on law-abiding firms to break the law in order to lower their labor costs, leading to a race to the bottom on labor standards, which is where the construction industry finds itself.”
Construction Dive
May 4, 2026
Arbitration policies are a get-out-of-jail-free card for companies that want to deprive workers and consumers of their rights, as the Economic Policy Institute pointed out a decade ago. Research shows that workers’ claims fail almost twice as often in arbitration as when they’re heard in federal court. Those who do succeed take home cash settlements that are thousands of dollars less than if their cases were heard in federal court. In other words, arbitration allows employers to continue breaking the law.
American Prospect
May 4, 2026
Labor unions are fighting in court a federal change that slashed minimum wages for H-2A workers, undercutting the domestic labor market, according to unions. The change dropped hourly wages from about $17.43 to a tiered structure, based on skill level, of $13.70 and $17.22, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
The Press Democrat
May 4, 2026
While undocumented laborers are being deported, the administration has made changes to the H-2A visa program to make it easier and less expensive for farms to hire temporary foreign labor. However, the Economic Policy Institute notes that farmers could lose as much as $3 billion in annual revenue because suppressed wages don’t address shortages.
GO Banking Rates
May 4, 2026
It’s May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, so there will be marches throughout the country, including a big one in downtown L.A. But what are the biggest challenges facing workers in the US today? Labor expert with the Economic Policy Institute Dave Kamper talks about it with L.A.’s Morning News.
KNX News Radio
May 4, 2026
By 1980, they had 9.5%, a number that would mostly continue to grow in the succeeding years, according to the Economic Policy Institute and WardsAuto.
Detroit Free Press
May 4, 2026
School systems have encountered a similar shortage, tracking a 9.5% decrease in bus drivers from 2019 to 2025, according to the economic policy institute. The high average age and rate of retirement among bus drivers, combined with the often complicated process of obtaining necessary training and licensing to become a driver, are commonly cited as reasons for the shortage.
Cardinal News (VA)
May 1, 2026
According to the Economic Policy Institute, in the immediate three decades after World War II, workers saw their hourly compensation in line with the country’s productivity growth. That’s because during the height of the Cold War — when employers offered employees pensions and union participation was at its peak — corporate America was incentivized to offer labor a larger share of the profits as a way to counteract communism. However, when the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990s, so did the motivation from domestic CEOs to share profits with workers. The split between capital and labor began measurably in 1970, and the gap has only increased since.
LA Times
May 1, 2026