If policymakers are serious about addressing affordability, they would champion one institution that has consistently proven capable of raising pay: unions.
Through collective bargaining, unions are the most effective mechanism for workers to raise their wages and secure their fair share of the wealth they produce. Our new report at the Economic Policy Institute quantifies how transformative it would be to rebuild union power. Specifically, we examine what we stand to gain if we tripled current union membership to 30% — similar to its peak in the U.S. before decades of relentless attacks on unions and collective bargaining eroded it, and just shy of the current rate in Canada.
We find that tripling union membership would raise pay for the typical worker by more than $7,700 every year, or nearly $270,000 over a 35-year career. This would be life-changing for a working family — nearly covering the cost of raising a child from birth through age 17, for example. And those increases aren’t just for unionized workers — strong unions also benefit nonunion workers by establishing broad standards that employers must follow to get and keep the workers they need.
In These Times
August 13, 2026
Your article on deadly occupations reports that there were 52 fatal workplace accidents in Oregon in 2024, (“These are Oregon’s most deadly occupations,” Aug. 2). The source is the annual U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. The critical word here is injuries, because these statistics exclude fatal occupational diseases. My review of literature in 2020 for the Economic Policy Institute revealed fatal diseases can outnumber accidents by as much as 10 to one.
The Oregonian
August 11, 2026
Nevada taxpayers paid $2.7 billion on mass deportations in 2025, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Clark County taxpayers accounted for $1.8 billion of that amount, and Washoe County taxpayers accounted for nearly $600,000.
The Nevada Current
August 11, 2026
President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda could cost Bexar County taxpayers more than $1.13 billion by the time his second term ends in 2028, according to a new online calculator created by the Economic Policy Institute.
The left-leaning D.C.-based think tank’s Cost of Deportations calculator shows how much U.S. taxpayer money is being spent on mass deportations at the national, state, county, congressional district and city levels — and for the average federal taxpayer.
San Antonio Current
August 11, 2026
Widening pay gap? Some 63% of women said they would feel pressure to accept a lower-paying job after a layoff, compared to 52% of men, according to a recent Glassdoor survey seen by Bloomberg. That could exacerbate the pay gap that’s been widening since 2024, the Economic Policy Institute reported.
HR Brew
August 11, 2026
The Trump administration’s deportation push costs the average American nearly $2,400 in taxes, according to analysis, money that could otherwise be spent on improving healthcare, housing and education.
A new tool from the Economic Policy Institute calculated how the $268.9 billion committed by the administration to fund President Donald Trump’s mass deportation and detention push would cost average American taxpayers $2,358.
The Independent
August 11, 2026
This from MSNow (link below):
By Ja’han Jones
$2,358 per person.
It’s a number that shows the impacts of President Donald Trump’s destructive economic agenda and bigoted anti-immigrant agenda in stark relief.
According to a new tool launched by the Economic Policy Institute, that’s the whopping amount American taxpayers are shelling out on average to fund Trump’s mass deportation push.
Daily Kos
August 10, 2026
Orange County’s staffing gap mirrors a national trend. A report cited by the Economic Policy Institute found the K-12 school bus driver workforce nationwide contracted by 12% between 2019 and 2023, with retirements and split-shift schedules slowing any recovery. Neighboring districts are feeling identical pressure heading into the new school year: Polk County Public Schools reported needing approximately 70 additional drivers in July to service 50,000 daily riders across 2,600 routes, a shortfall Hoodline previously reported was pushing that district to the brink before the first bell.
Hoodline
August 10, 2026
Perhaps one of the more sobering findings is that higher education has not served as the financial buffer it once did. Nearly all Black adults, including those with college degrees, saw their financial standing worsen last year. Among Black college-educated adults specifically, the share reporting financial comfort dropped by nearly seven percentage points, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The gap between Black and white adults on this measure is also widening. While more than three quarters of Black adults said making ends meet was at least a minor concern, that figure rose by eight percentage points in a single year. Among white, non-Hispanic adults surveyed over the same period, that number actually fell.
Rolling Out Magazine
August 10, 2026
Economic Policy Institute reported in 2025 that Amazon, alongside Starbucks and Trader Joe’s, had engaged in retaliatory actions to stifle organizing efforts. Across the three companies, the report documented tactics such as reducing workers’ hours until they became ineligible for health care coverage and other benefits, closing or threatening to close unionizing locations, and providing raises or other benefits to nonunion employees while denying them to workers who had organized.
MoneyDigest
August 10, 2026