The Real News Network
April 6, 2026
Given tight staff budgets, lawmakers outsource their legislative, communications, and networking strategies to whichever policy outfit overlaps with their political philosophy and electoral base. This ideas industry allows movement conservatives to turn to the Heritage Foundation, trade unionists to the Economic Policy Institute, libertarians to the Cato Institute, and so on.
Palladium Magazine
April 6, 2026
The H-2A temporary agriculture program allows approximately 350,000 farm workers into the United States for a maximum of three years at a time. It, too, is facing enormous changes. The Economic Policy Institute notes that under the Trump Administration’s proposed rules, wage reductions will bring H-2A workers’ pay from between $15 and $20 per hour to between $8 and $17, and will allow employers who provide shelter to their employees to deduct housing costs from their paychecks. In addition, it will give employers the right to fire workers for protesting, organizing, or working too slowly.
The Progressive Magazine
April 6, 2026
Headlines say Black women are leaving the workforce. Analysts from the Economic Policy Institute point to layoffs, burnout, and the steady rise in entrepreneurship.
Black Enterprise
April 6, 2026
This effective tax arrives at a particularly precarious moment for many Americans, just as real wage gains are beginning to flatten and households are drawing down their savings to near-historic lows, according to Moody’s. Real wages declined 0.3% for low-income workers last year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a reversal from post-pandemic trends when low- and middle-wage gains were prominent.
Fortune
April 6, 2026
The U.S. Senate business report also found that job creation is being impacted, citing an Economic Policy Institute paper which found that, if the administration reached its 4 million deportation goal, there would be 3.3 million fewer employed immigrants and 2.6 million fewer employed U.S. citizens.
New Bedford Light (Massachusetts)
April 6, 2026
To that point, a 2024 Economic Policy Institute Report, “The Rise of the ‘Union Curious,’ ” delved into data collected by the Worker Empowerment Research Network and found that 45% of workers under 30 are “union curious,” meaning they don’t necessarily favor or oppose unions, but they are open to considering third-party representation.
SHRM
April 6, 2026
Similarly, a 2025 Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report found that childcare for one infant is more expensive than public college tuition in 38 states.
“Childcare is unaffordable for working families everywhere in the country, and it’s even more unattainable for minimum-wage workers and the very workers that administer childcare,” EPI research assistant Katherine deCourcy said in a press release. “This isn’t inevitable—it is a policy choice. Federal and state policymakers can and should act to make childcare more affordable, and ensure that childcare workers can afford the same quality of care for their own children.”
Fast Company
April 6, 2026
Economists have long argued that immigration would fill the gap. The Congressional Budget Office now estimates that immigration will account for about 100% of U.S. population growth over the next decade, and well over 100% after 2031, as the native-born population shrinks. A recent Economic Policy Institute report found that achieving historically normal rates of economic growth will be nearly impossible without sustained immigration flows.
Barron’s
April 6, 2026
The cost of infant care in Indiana is $1,206 per month, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute. Foster families get a $28 per day base rate to take an infant.
WFYI
April 6, 2026