At the start of this year, minimum wage hikes took effect in 19 states, affecting more than 8.3 million workers and adding an estimated $5 billion in wages nationwide, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.
Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance)
March 16, 2026
As the president’s immigration policies squeeze an already tight supply of farm labor, the Trump administration is making it cheaper to hire foreign farmworkers…
The predicament Maria and her son face underline a point made by economists: Lowering wages for H-2A workers will not lead to more American workers in agriculture or increased pay for native workers.
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, estimated that the methodological changes would result in a $2 billion cut to the annual wages of guest farmworkers — and a $3 billion cut for U.S.-based farmworkers.
New York Times
March 16, 2026
Gothamist also drew attention to some other scholarship on the subject, namely a compilation of 88 studies by the nonpartisan think tank Economic Policy Institute, that points to a rather different conclusion than Grech and Heritage.
“Older research found more sizable disemployment effects. But with improvements in research methodology over time, the conclusions of studies have shifted dramatically in the last 15 years,” the EPI report notes. “The median employment response to wage increases for studies published since 2010 is very close to zero,” meaning few businesses resorted to layoffs to accommodate the pay hike, according to the study.
The Westside Spirit
March 16, 2026
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual cost of full-time child care in Ohio ranges from $13,426 to $17,071, depending on the children’s …
The Columbus Dispatch
March 16, 2026
All of this is easy to miss in the topline data coming out of the agency given that regional offices are still closing cases, largely in line with recent years. A Brookings Institution and Economic Policy Institute report from last year found that in 2025, case closures were largely in line with 2023 and 2024, as was the number of new petitions filed with the agency.
Margaret Poydock, a co-author of the report, explained that the fact that the first half of 2025 looked similar to recent years speaks more to the long-term dysfunction at the agency rather than some sort of business-as-usual approach from the current administration.
“Even under the Biden administration, the NLRB grappled with just getting funding to have adequate staffing to accommodate the increased interest in worker organizing that was happening under the administration,” Poydock said.
Salon.com
March 16, 2026
Over 8.3 million workers saw a raise in their minimum wages, as more states employed a $15 or greater minimum wage than states that invoke the federal minimum wage of $7.25, according to Economic Policy Institute.
Shreveport Times
March 16, 2026
An hourly wage of $30 amounts to an annual salary of $62,400, still short of living wage standards by some measures. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator, a single person needs $83,262 each year in the New York metro area to pay for decent shelter, food, transportation and other necessities in life, with about 35% going toward housing. A couple raising one child would require $142,229, with 23% going toward housing and 11% toward child care.
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EPI, a left-leaning think tank, estimates that a $30 minimum, if passed, would raise wages for about 1.68 million workers, or a little more than a third of the city’s total wage-earning workforce. “The winners of the policy will far exceed those who might experience unemployment” says Ben Zipperer, a senior economist at EPI.
Wall Street Journal
March 16, 2026
The Economic Policy Institute has shared data that supports these concerns. Their research shows that a family of four in the Bronx needs nearly $135,000 a year to live comfortably. In Manhattan, that number jumps to over $167,000. Without a big change, researchers project that about 1.68 million workers in the city will still be earning less than $30 an hour by 2030.
New York Weekly
March 16, 2026
Washington, D.C., recorded the highest unemployment rate in the nation in 2025, a troubling sign of a weakening labor market that researchers say hit Black workers hardest across the country.
A new annual analysis of state unemployment rates by race and ethnicity from the Economic Policy Institute found that the District posted an average unemployment rate of 5.9% last year, the highest among all states and jurisdictions. South Dakota recorded the lowest rate at 1.9%.
The Washington Informer
March 16, 2026
Analysis by nonprofit United Way of Connecticut estimated a 2023 “survival” budget of $126,000 for a family of four, with roughly 40 percent of households unable to cover those costs. The Urban Institute estimated a family of four in the Northeast needed about $151,100 in 2022 to be economically secure, and the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator placed 2023 thresholds for two adults with two children between $131,189 in Windham County and $163,928 in Fairfield County.
Newsweek
March 16, 2026