In Ventura County, a family with two adults and two children needs an annual income of $170,791 before taxes to afford their basic needs, according to the latest data from the Economic Policy Institute. As far-fetched as it sounds, even at this income, they’re living paycheck to paycheck.
Ventura County Star (California)
January 12, 2026
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 2026 is the first year where more workers live in a state with at least a $15 an hour minimum wage than the $7.25 an hour minimum wage.
MLive
January 12, 2026
On Jan. 1, more than 8.3 million workers got pay bumps as 19 states raised their minimum wages for the new year, the Economic Policy Institute reported. These changes mean there are more workers in states paying at least $15 per hour than there are workers in states with a federal minimum of $7.25.
GO Banking Rates
January 12, 2026
“Employers are not doing a lot of hiring right now. Workers are not quitting. There’s not a lot of churn in the labor market so it’s harder for workers to break in,” said Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
In other words, low-hire, low-fire.
Marketplace
January 12, 2026
Economist Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute took a look at the jobs numbers and concluded the US labor market now is far weaker than the one Biden left Trump nearly one year ago.
“The slowdown in job growth this year is stark compared to 2024,” Gould wrote on Bluesky. “The average monthly gain was only 49,000 in 2025 compared to 168,000 in 2024. Over the last three months, average job growth was actually negative, meaning there are fewer jobs now than in September.”
Common Dreams
January 12, 2026
That’s part of a nationwide trend. In the same time period displayed by those maps, the share of income earned by the top 10 percent has increased from 33 percent to nearly 50 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Chicago Magazine
January 12, 2026
In November 2025, Black unemployment reached 8.3 percent, almost doubling the national rate of 4.6 percent. Contributing to this data, the Trump Administration’s cut to federal jobs impacted Black workers in every state according to findings from the Economic Policy Institute.
Essence
January 12, 2026
The average cost of child care is $15,394 a year in New York, the sixth-most expensive state in the nation, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Center Square
January 12, 2026
A total of 19 states increased their minimums in 2026, each of them landing between $10 an hour and $18 an hour. Nationwide, at least 30 states as well as Washington, D.C., have minimum wages that exceed the federal minimum, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
HR Dive
January 12, 2026
The Trump economy is hammering black workers particularly hard:
Among demographic groups, the worst deterioration in the job market has been for Black workers, said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy.
Dakota Free Press
January 12, 2026