Percent change in real wage by wage percentile is annual data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute and only available through 2025.
Bloomberg
February 23, 2026
The Economic Policy Institute’s family budget calculator estimates that a single parent with two children in Memphis needs roughly $81,000 a year to cover a modest standard of living, a figure that makes that median income look awfully thin.
Hoodline
February 23, 2026
Trump issued an executive order in March 2025 that sought to cancel all collective bargaining agreements for most federal employees, citing national security concerns.
Supply Chain Brain
February 23, 2026
For much of the 20th century, teaching was a stable, middle-class job in the U.S. Now it’s becoming a lot harder to survive on a teacher’s salary: Wages have been stagnant for decades,according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute, and teachers earn 5% less than they did a decade ago when adjusting for inflation.
Mississippi Free Press
February 23, 2026
The CEO-to-worker pay ratio starkly illustrates this point. Analyses from the Economic Policy Institute using Federal Reserve and Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that between 1965 and 2024, CEO compensation increased by 2,032% while typical worker compensation increased by 71%. In dollar terms, realized compensation which includes wages, bonuses, and stock options averaged $1 million for CEOs in 1965 and averaged $23 million in 2024.
The Gazette
February 23, 2026
A July 2025 report by the Economic Policy Institute found Trump’s deportation goals of 4 million people would result in job losses of 3.3 million for immigrants and 2.6 million for US-born workers.
The Guardian
February 23, 2026
Despite the attacks on federal government unions, union membership in the public sector grew in 2025 and continued to be about five times higher than the private sector, at 32.9 percent. That boost came, in part, from a rise in union membership in the federal government, as tens of thousands of civil servants joined unions amid attacks on their jobs from the Trump administration.
“Even in our current broken system of labor law and policy … we’re seeing this increase in union density,” said Celine McNicholas, director of policy and government affairs at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “It’s clear that workers want union and are winning unions.”
The Washington Post
February 23, 2026
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist off the US Department of Labor, noted the increase of 463,000 workers represented by a union is the highest number in the US in 16 years.
“This is an extremely welcome departure from prior years’ declines,” Shierholz posted on Bluesky. “In a time of fear, uncertainty, and hardship, workers are realizing they are better off in a union. Workers are exerting control over their jobs and their lives through unionization. This is especially clear in the federal government, where unionization surged despite unprecedented attacks.”
She cited the increases in 2025 to “years of sustained effort. Organizing and winning union elections is a lengthy process, and the groundwork laid over many years definitely contributed to this year’s gains.”
The Guardian
February 23, 2026
KALW San Francisco
February 23, 2026
Mills’ organization brought together hotel workers from across the country, including members of Local 25, the union representing hotel, restaurant, and casino workers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Along with officials from the Economic Policy Institute, the union members held a roundtable discussion to share their experiences of how the hotel industry has been impacted over the past year.
El Tiempo Latino
February 23, 2026