The city’s economic woes compound upon its Black residents, who are overrepresented in poverty statistics. The Economic Policy Institute found that Black employment in the DMV region fell by 5.9 percent between 2024 and 2025, a decline which is directly attributable to the federal layoffs. Insufficient funding to safety net programs from the budget puts DC’s vulnerable Black communities further in danger.
Inequality.org
June 24, 2026
“It’s one thing to get educators into the profession, but to be able to keep them, we need to be paying them what other professions outside of education are making,” said Dale Templeton, director of collective bargaining for the National Education Association, the country’s largest union at about 3 million members. (Disclosure: NEA is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)
That isn’t happening. According to the most recent data from the Economic Policy Institute, the gap between average public school teacher pay and that of comparable college graduates working in other professions hit a record 27% in 2024. In 1996, the furthest year back before an interruption in data gathering, that gap sat at only 6%.
Capital & Main
June 23, 2026
In 30 states and Washington D.C., the minimum wage is higher than the federal floor of $7.25 per hour. While the federal minimum hasn’t gone up since 2009, 28 states and D.C. have increased theirs since 2014, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
USA Today
June 17, 2026
Like Oklahoma, the federal minimum wage hasn’t seen an increase since 2009, but 28 states and D.C. have increased theirs since 2014, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Most of those states are left-leaning, making them more likely to back minimum wage increases, but several red states, similar to Oklahoma, have passed higher minimum wages by ballot initiative.
The Oklahoman
June 17, 2026
More than 350,000 Oklahoma workers will not receive raises that would have totaled to over $783 million as a result of Question 832 failing, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Oklahomans last received a minimum wage increase when the federal floor was raised in 2009.
Bloomberg Law
June 17, 2026
According to the Economic Policy Institute, arbitration is worse for consumers than for companies. This is because customers tend to lose more often than the companies, and end up paying arbitration fees.
NerdWallet
June 16, 2026
In 2024, the Economic Policy Institute found that the pay gap between public school teachers and other college graduates had hit a record high.
Kansas City Beacon
June 16, 2026
The gender pay gap is narrower in Philadelphia than the national average, which is roughly the same as it was in 2010. Across the country, women earn on average 81 cents for every dollar made by men, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning nonprofit think tank.
Philadelphia Inquirer
June 16, 2026
According to the Economic Policy Institute, arbitration is worse for consumers than for companies. This is because customers tend to lose more often than the companies, and end up paying arbitration fees.
NerdWallet
June 16, 2026