Nina Mast, an economic analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, says there is a lot of privilege involved in our tipping culture, even if we don’t realize it. “Tipped workers are more likely to be people of color, women, women of color, or single parents, and are disproportionately born outside of the U.S.,” she wrote in a recent paper.
Tipped workers experience high rates of poverty and are vulnerable to wage theft and sexual harassment, she added. “The South has the largest tipped workforce of any region. Tipped workers in the South are paid the second lowest median wage of any region, and most Southern states allow employers to pay tipped workers as little as $2.13 an hour.”
MarketWatch
March 17, 2025
The gains in the post office with regards to diversity aren’t accidental. One reason for the high rate of Black employment at the postal office is because the USPS recruits veterans, a large percentage of whom are Black, said Monique Morrissey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “They’re vetted and they’re trustworthy,” said Morrissey of veterans. “You don’t want somebody messing with mail. The consequences are harsh if somebody does that.”
The Guardian
March 17, 2025
Why It Matters: According to the Economic Policy Institute, Trump inherited a healthy economy from his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance)
March 17, 2025
The Rutgers report cites a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute that found state and federal authorities in the U.S. recovered $1.5 billion in unpaid wages between 2021 and 2023.
News from the States
March 17, 2025
California has the fourth-highest infant childcare costs in the U.S., an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found.
Average infant child care costs in California total almost $22,000 a year, ranking behind Washington, D.C., Massachusetts and Minnesota.
EdSource
March 17, 2025
The potential new pressures on Americans’ wallets come as inflation has been squeezing all but the wealthiest Americans for years now. The added costs of these new tariffs – estimated to be about $626 per person, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute – are even more bad news for the roughly half of U.S. households who already carry a credit-card balance.
MarketWatch
March 17, 2025
Places identified in Destination: Retirement 2025 articles were selected from a list of U.S. counties that were ranked according to factors which are most important to retirees: cost of living, as well as access to travel, entertainment, and health care based on publicly available data sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). More details about each data set, below.
Investopedia
March 17, 2025
CEO compensation has increased 1,085% since 1978, compared to a 24% increase in average employee pay, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Fortune
March 17, 2025
“If things continue on the way that they’re going, if the president continues to make all these unforced economic policy errors, it’s quite likely that we could have a recession this year,” said Adam Hersh, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Hearst TV
March 17, 2025