The Federal Reserve Bank first released its analysis of the minimum wage increase in 2021, and experts at the Economic Policy Institute were unimpressed, saying the analyses were “misleading”…[paywall].
Minnesota Star Tribune
May 18, 2026
Misclassification of employees as independent contractors robs workers of thousands of dollars per year and reduces revenue for social safety net programs, according to a new Economic Policy Institute analysis of 11 commonly misclassified jobs.
The report estimates that as many as 10% to 30% of employers misclassify workers as independent contractors. That leads to those workers missing out on critical protections, benefits, and labor rights, including minimum wage, overtime pay, unemployment insurance, the right to form a union, and anti-discrimination protections in most states.
Insurance Journal
May 18, 2026
“The depressed hires rate suggests that it is more difficult for new entrants to get a foothold in the labour market,” Elise Gould and Joe Fast said in a recent analysis published by the economic think tank Economic Policy Institute.
“The quits rate is down, signaling a reduction in the overall churn in the labor market as workers and employers sit tight through this period of economic uncertainty, likely related to chaotic policy decisions and implementation around tariffs, deportations, and the conflict with Iran.”
Al Jazeera
May 18, 2026
The nonprofit, nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute found that as of March of this year, the D.C. region had about 115,000 fewer jobs in the region compared with before Trump took office.
…
“The share of regional population with a job fell by 3.2 percentage points in the D.C. region overall, and that’s eight times the change for the U.S. as a whole,” Nina Mast, an economic analyst and one of the study’s authors, told WTOP.
But the job losses were not evenly distributed. For Black workers in the area, the share of the population with a job fell by six percentage points, compared to 3.2% for the region as a whole.
WTOP
May 18, 2026
According to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, Spanberger’s amended bill so heavily weakened the collective bargaining rights initially passed by the general assembly that it would “lock Virginia into an unstable, ineffective system in which collective bargaining would remain merely ‘optional’”.
The Guardian
May 18, 2026
Nina Mast, policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, said limited staffing has reduced OSHA’s ability to proactively enforce protections.
“A lot of their enforcement activity is really reliant on worker complaints,” she said. “There’s really no deterrent effect anymore because there’s so little capacity to do these inspections.”
Mountain State Spotlight
May 18, 2026
Thursday: The Economic Policy Institute and the Roosevelt Institute host a virtual discussion on the minimum wage at 1 p.m.
Politico Morning Money
May 18, 2026
“Now with inflation rising, you would expect people to try to leverage and get more wage increases or try to get better offers,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. But workers aren’t quitting at high rates.
The Washington Post
May 18, 2026
Childcare for one infant now costs more than public college tuition in most states, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Our National Consumer Unit teamed up with Hearst stations across the country to investigate what’s driving rising costs, how families are adapting and where parents may be able to find relief. From long waitlists to parents leaving the workforce, our team examines how the growing crisis is reshaping family life across America.
Hearst Television
May 18, 2026
The Fed’s survey isn’t the only indicator that Black people are consistently taking a larger share of the brunt of Trump’s mishandling of the economy. According to the Economic Policy Institute, in the first quarter of 2026, “the Black unemployment rate (7.6%) was 1.2 percentage points higher than in the first three months of the second Trump administration,” and “Black men’s employment-population (EPOP) ratio decreased by 1.7 percentage points (from 60.5% to 58.8%) since the first quarter of 2025, with noncollege graduates driving this decline.”
News One
May 18, 2026