DOGE Damage Drags on in DC, Where Inequality is Widening as a Result

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Federal work powers much of the I-95 corridor, employing residents in Maryland’s Calvert, Charles, Anne Arundel, Prince George’s, Montgomery and Baltimore counties, and northern Virginia counties, including Fairfax and Stafford. But it’s in D.C. that job loss has been most acute. The District logged the highest unemployment rate in the nation in 2025, according to the Economic Policy Institute, likely because of the high concentration of federal jobs there.

Talking Points Memo March 30, 2026

Income and wage trends across the decades

To better understand who has benefited from this recent economic growth, we now shift from households to individuals, so that we can disaggregate the data by education, gender, and age, harder factors to isolate when analyzing households that pool income across multiple people. For this analysis, we focus on wage and salary workers aged 16 and older, building on an approach used by the Economic Policy Institute.

Boston Indicators March 30, 2026

Coming (Very) Soon: Public’s First Look at DOL Proposed Rule on Alternative Investments

Critics such as the Economic Policy Institute also warn that expanding access to alternatives could expose participants to higher fees, added complexity, and weaker protections, arguing that institutional investors themselves have been pulling back from these strategies. Supporters, however, contend that with proper structure and clearer rules, fiduciaries can responsibly incorporate alternatives into professionally managed solutions.

401K Specialist March 30, 2026

After past vetoes, Democratic-controlled legislature sends Virginia Equal Pay Act to governor

Supporters say the legislation addresses structural issues that contribute to the gender pay gap, which persists nationwide despite decades of policy efforts.

A recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that the gap widened slightly in 2025, with women on average earning about 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, down from roughly 84 cents the year before.

The report also found that Black and Hispanic women continue to face even wider disparities, earning significantly less than white, non-Hispanic men.

Virginia Mercury March 30, 2026

Businesses Need Sound Tax Policy to Attract and Keep H-1B Workers

Labor organizations such as the Economic Policy Institute argue temporary worker programs are dominated by staffing companies and large corporations, and …[paywall].

Bloomberg Law March 30, 2026

PolitiFact FL: James Fishback says underemployment for young US college grads is 70%, is it true?

Our sources:

Economic Policy Institute, Useful Definitions, Accessed March 19, 2026

WLRN March 30, 2026

Why paid sick leave is a DEI issue

These findings about a lack of paid sick leave coverage for Black women are compounded by earlier research from the Economic Policy Institute, which indicated that Black women experienced the greatest job loss out of all groups of women and lost more jobs compared to Black men throughout 2025.

Black women’s employment fell by 1.4% to 55.7%, which EPI noted was the sharpest decline in 25 years. And while a number of external factors can influence employment rates for certain demographic groups, a study by Great Place to Work showed that a concrete way to ensure women stay in their jobs is by providing a healthy workplace culture.

HR Dive March 30, 2026

Politicians are trying to make life cheaper. Economists are appalled.

“If you try to push down grocery prices, you could actually start reducing supply. People might start going out of business, or grocery stores close,” said Josh Bivens, chief economist of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. He added: “That price obsession has led to a lot of policy ideas that are just not going to work very well. I am sort of frustrated with where it’s going.”

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Some strands of economic theory would suggest that rather than focus on prices, governments would do better to try to raise people’s incomes, so that they can afford price increases.

“There are a lot of people who have trouble affording enough food on a regular basis. But I think that’s more a problem of they’re not getting enough income from the labor market,” Bivens said. He favors several approaches to raising incomes, including monetary policy aimed at reducing unemployment and labor laws that strengthen unions.

The Washington Post March 30, 2026

Trump allows more foreign farm workers but cuts their wages by up to 32%

New rules from the Trump administration will add at least 150,000 foreign farm workers with temporary H-2A visas in the United States, but will also reduce their wages by up to 32%, the Economic Policy Institute revealed on Tuesday, National Agriculture Day.

Changes in the methodology used by the Department of Labor to calculate the wages of foreign farmworkers with H-2A visas, 90% of whom are Mexican, imply a decrease of 26 to 32% in their pay, explains Daniel Costa, director of research on immigration law and policy at the institute.

This decrease in labor costs could mean a drop of up to 9% in the wages of American farm workers, so collectively, agricultural workers in the United States would lose between $4.4 billion and $5.4 billion annually in income, the researcher explains.

Forbes March 30, 2026

In DC., Black workers are losing jobs at the highest rates

Washington, D.C. had the highest unemployment in the country in 2025 with an average unemployment rate of 5.9%, per a new report by the Economic Policy Institute. The U.S. unemployment rate in 2025, on the other hand, loomed around 4.4%.

“The labor market was unambiguously weaker through the first year of Trump’s second term, compared with the last year of Biden’s presidency,” the report, updated March 2026, said. “Sweeping federal job cuts, erratic tariff policies, and a retrenchment from diversity, equity, and inclusion are hallmarks of the 2025 labor market.”

These factors, especially the federal job cuts, contributed to Washington’s higher unemployment rate.

The EPI found that in 2025 D.C. had an average Black unemployment rate of 9.5%, per the institute’s report that looked at state unemployment data by race and ethnicity. White unemployment in D.C. last year was a fraction of that at 3.7%.

Essence March 30, 2026