Research collected by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a leading nonpartisan think tank that studies the nation’s economic engine, found that the explosion of the U.S. labor force between 1994 and 2024 was possible primarily because of immigration. The same study released in April 2025 found that workers in their prime years (age 25 through 54) grew by 13.6 million people.
Spectrum News 1
March 2, 2026
Union activity has surged in the United States in recent years. In 2025, nearly half a million people who weren’t unionized, joined unions, bringing the total number of unionized people to 16.5 million. While this is not a large percentage of the population, according to the Economic Policy Institute, more than 50 million workers wanted to join a union but couldn’t. At a time of ongoing economic insecurity, there is a strong desire among workers to join forces and take on corporate employers.
Truthout
March 2, 2026
Public school teachers make about 27% less than other people who have similar levels of education in other jobs, according to 2024 data from the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Economic Policy Institute. That’s the highest on records that go back to the 1970s. It’s even worse for men, where the teacher pay gap is 36%.
CNN.com
March 2, 2026
Analysis: Yes, 2.4 million people are now unable to receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. However, this is not a sign of decreasing poverty but a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is cutting federal spending on certain welfare programs. Millions of people will lose eligibility for food stamps due to new work requirements. In fact, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the federal minimum wage officially fell below the poverty line in 2025.
Medill News Service
March 2, 2026
Compare that to any of the income figures noted above and the prospect of a diminishing middle class becomes easier to understand. Monthly costs are higher or lower depending on where you live in the country, as shown by the Economic Policy Institute’s family budget map.
Investopedia
March 2, 2026
The following 10 states have the lowest cost of living, according to The Motley Fool’s analysis of the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator:
The Motley Fool
March 2, 2026
The Pitch from Civic Ventures
March 2, 2026
Put simply, President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies have made it less likely that people from other countries want to visit here, let alone leave their tourism dollars in the States. That will affect both large corporations and their individual workers, said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute.
“We can see the moral and ethical reprehensibility of what is going on, and that is the first concern,” said Shierholz, a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. “But it is also just terrible economics.”
LAST SUMMER, THE ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE estimated that Trump’s plan to deport as many as a million immigrants per year during his term would lead not only to 3.3 million fewer employed immigrants over four years, but also to 2.6 million fewer employed U.S.-born workers—the ripple effect of a damaged job market.
The American Prospect
March 2, 2026
The act directly protects individuals by providing statutory protection to hair texture and styles such as braids, locs, twists, etc. As of 2024, 25 states have passed the CROWN Act, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Arizona State Press
March 2, 2026
An Economic Policy Institute analysis of Census data found that more than 50 million workers, or 35% of the working population, earn $20 or less.
MoneyWise
March 2, 2026