Twenty-two states and 66 cities and counties will raise their minimum wage by the end of 2026, with most having instituted the new pay floors on Jan. 1, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
That means more than 8.3 million people have already received a raise, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The institute also noted that there are now more people in states with a pay floor of at least $15 than there are in states that pay the $7.25 federal requirement.
U.S. News & World Report
January 20, 2026
AI Invest
January 20, 2026
Economic Policy Institute. At least 17 of those bills have been successfully enacted across 13 states [paywall].
Forbes
January 20, 2026
API claims that universal school choice programs don’t harm public schools. The Economic Policy Institute has done multiple studies and disagrees. Please read these articles. How do you refute their methodology and evidence? In their article, “Vouchers undermine efforts to provide an excellent public education for all,” they write, “Vouchers make no coherent economic sense, and the evidence shows that vouchers harm student achievement and expose state budgets to large future obligations that are hard to forecast, even while they divert spending away from public education.” The article also offers several examples of devastating school voucher programs in multiple states that have long standing programs.
Please read, “How vouchers harm public schools: Calculating the cost of voucher programs of public schools.” Furthermore, the underlying assumption that private schools offer a better education than public schools is not supported by the research.
Alabama Political Reporter
January 20, 2026
The Economic Policy Institute’s family budget calculator shows that, no matter where you live in the Mid-Atlantic area, you are spending $1,000 or more a month on groceries.
Asbury Park Press
January 20, 2026
From “stripping collective bargaining rights from more than 1 million federal workers” to “denying 2 million in-home healthcare workers minimum wage and overtime pay,” President Donald Trump “has actively made life less affordable for working people.”
That’s according to a Tuesday report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which cataloged 47 key ways that the 47th president made life worse for working people during the first year of his second term.
Common Dreams
January 20, 2026
According to a 2020 Economic Policy Institute analysis, parents spend about $42 billion a year on care for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, while state and federal governments covered about $34 billion.
The Washington Post
January 20, 2026
Sources:
- Economic Policy Institute. “Family Budget Calculator,” Enter “Gregory County, South Dakota,” “2 adults,” and “no children” for data.
Investopedia
January 20, 2026
More recently, an Economic Policy Institute study (2023) found that significant shares of older workers ages 50–70 experience difficult working conditions. These include environmental hazards (54.2%), difficult schedules (53.7%), high-pressure jobs (46.1%), limited autonomy (45.9%), and adverse social interactions (14.1%). Strikingly, 50.3% of older workers engage in at least one physical activity that can lead to injury.
Psychology Today
January 20, 2026
The previous H-2A workers’ minimum wage was $18.83 an hour. Under the Trump administration’s new guidelines, announced in October, the minimum wage will be lowered to about $16 an hour.
More than 380,000 migrant workers collectively are expected to lose between $4.4 billion to $5.4 billion in wages annually under the new guidelines, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Under the prior rules, it was illegal for workplaces to charge H-2A workers rent for housing; the Trump administration’s new rules open the door for employers to charge H-2A workers rent for housing.
Documented NY
January 20, 2026