Under the new wage rules, nationally farm workers stand to lose between $4.4 billion and $5.4 billion annually, according to an Economic Policy Institute estimate.
Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at EPI, said the wage cuts appear to have a dual intent: help American farmers find cheaper labor, thus making it easier for them to replace unauthorized workers.
“I think that’s the strategy overall: Deport the undocumented and replace them with H–2A low-wage workers,” Costa said.
Bloomberg
April 27, 2026
According to a 2025 report published by the Economic Policy Institute, the average cost of infant care in the District is $28,356 – that’s $2,363 per month.
Afro News
April 27, 2026
“Most of the increase in the Black unemployment rate over the last year has been due to employment losses for Black women” rather than more of them entering the labor force to find work, said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy.
Black women’s employment rate fell 1.4 percentage points last year, one of the steepest declines in the last quarter century. Black men as well as women of other races have not seen similar declines in their employment rates. “There is something unique happening to Black women in particular,” Wilson said.
This rise in unemployment has been particularly felt by Black women like Tayloe who have higher education. The share of Black women with bachelor’s degrees in the labor force fell by 3.5 percentage points last year, the largest drop for any educational level. About half of Black workers in the federal sector have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Capital & Main
April 27, 2026
Other lawmakers, educators and researchers are sounding the alarm on the negative impacts private school vouchers have on public school systems.
They point out that private schools do not need to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — the nation’s special education law — or comply with other federal education civil rights rules. They also denounce a lack of transparency and accountability in private school voucher programs.
These programs can be especially detrimental to rural schools located in areas that may not have private school options, according to research released this month from the Economic Policy Institute.
K-12 Dive
April 27, 2026
At the same time, the Trump administration has cut the minimum wage for H-2A farmworkers, which the Economic Policy Institute estimates will reduce the pay of over 350,000 H-2A farmworkers by between 26 and 32 percent for a total of at least $2 billion.
American Prospect
April 27, 2026
Research suggests the relationship between minimum wage increases and poverty reduction is not straightforward.
The Economic Policy Institute highlights that higher minimum wages raise incomes and can reduce poverty at the margins, estimating that a $15 wage could lift millions out of poverty nationwide.
As income rises, workers may face higher taxes or reduced eligibility for certain benefits, a dynamic often referred to as the “benefit cliff.” At the same time, increases in the cost of housing, energy, and other essentials can erode gains in purchasing power.
CT Insider
April 27, 2026
Worker advocacy groups have been critical of that approach. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning group, said in 2020 that the rule from Trump’s first term would make it more difficult to crack down on wage theft and cost workers more than $1 billion annually.
Reuters
April 27, 2026
A report from the Economic Policy Institute details income losses across occupations and states and outlines impact on Social Security, Medicare, and other systems.
A report from the Economic Policy Institute details the financial consequences of misclassifying employees as independent contractors, finding substantial losses in pay, benefits, and legal protections for workers and reduced revenue for social insurance systems. The analysis quantifies how misclassification affects workers in 11 occupations commonly subject to the practice and examines variations by state. It also describes how the shift in classification transfers costs from employers to workers and public programs.
Vital Law
April 27, 2026
The gap between productivity and compensation is not new. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Productivity-Pay Tracker, productivity has grown roughly eight times faster than typical worker pay since 1979 — a divergence driven by a steady erosion of worker bargaining power over four decades.
Quartz
April 27, 2026