Nina Mast (she/they) joined EPI in 2022 as an economic analyst on the State Policy and Research team. Mast’s research at EPI includes a focus on child labor standards. Mast is a graduate of the Master of Public Policy program at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School, where she served as a researcher for the UC Berkeley Labor Center and represented academic student employees as a union steward with UAW-2865.
Mast has been interviewed or quoted by numerous outlets including ABC News, NBC News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, and The New Yorker, and appeared on American Public Media for “Marketplace” and the popular “Pitchfork Economics” podcast.
Before graduate school, Mast worked as a researcher in the labor movement and at issue advocacy organizations focused on health care and the economy. At SEIU Local 32BJ, she conducted research to support fast-food workers in Connecticut and commercial cleaning workers in New York. Prior to 32BJ, she worked on issue campaigns at The Hub Project and efforts to advance a progressive economic worldview at the Groundwork Collaborative.
Education
M.P.P., UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy
B.S., Carnegie Mellon University, International Relations and Politics
Latest
By Content:
By Area of Research:
By Type:
By Date Range:
-
Indiana lawmakers are once again trying to weaken child labor laws: Bill sponsored by business owner would enable employers to hide child labor violations
-
Testimony in support of Protections for Worker Safety (HB 1054) before the Colorado House Committee on Business Affairs and Labor
-
Everything you need to know about “no tax on overtime”
-
Everything you need to know about “no tax on tips”
-
New research reveals how work permits reduce child labor violations
-
Governor DeWine acts “in the public interest” to veto a dangerous child labor bill in Ohio
-
EPI comment in support of NYC DCWP proposed rule to establish minimum pay protections for grocery delivery workers
-
EPI comment in support of Colorado Department of Labor and Employment proposed child labor rule
-
Workplace health and safety standards: State solutions to the U.S. worker rights crisis
-
New state income and poverty data show a strong economy in 2024, but Trump policies threaten progress
-
Extreme heat is deadly for workers and costly for the economy: States can’t afford to wait to pass protective heat standards
-
EPI comment on New Jersey’s proposed regulation codifying its interpretation of the state’s statutory “ABC test”
-
Child labor standards: State solutions to the U.S. worker rights crisis
-
How anti-worker policies, crony capitalism, and privatization keep the South locked out of shared prosperity: Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation: Part Five
-
Forget ‘no tax on tips’—increasing the minimum wage would deliver dramatically larger raises for millions more workers without letting employers off the hook
-
Coordinated attacks on state labor standards are laying the groundwork for dangerous Project 2025 proposals to undermine all workers’ rights
-
At least 26 states have launched their own version of DOGE: These states are simply rebranding longstanding efforts to undermine government in service of the wealthy
-
The State of Working South Carolina
-
No tax on overtime is another gimmick that would do more harm than good
-
Domestic workers’ pay and working conditions in the South reflect racist, gendered notions of care: Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation: Spotlight
-
‘No tax on tips’ will harm more workers than it helps: Proposals in Congress and now 20 states could encourage harmful employer practices and lead to tip requests in virtually every consumer transaction
-
Forced prison labor in the “Land of the Free”: Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation: Spotlight
-
New research shows that work permits reduce child labor violations: State legislators must strengthen, not eliminate, youth work permits
-
How Republicans in Congress are trying to quietly privatize SNAP through the back door of disaster relief
-
Testimony prepared for the Michigan Senate in support of SB 963, 964, and 965: Michigan should seize the opportunity to strengthen and modernize child labor standards
-
Tipping is a racist relic and a modern tool of economic oppression in the South: Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation: Spotlight
-
More states have strengthened child labor laws than weakened them in 2024: This year, state advocates were better equipped to organize in opposition to harmful bills
-
Testimony prepared for the Senate Labor Committee hearing on Illinois’ Child Labor Law of 2024
-
Child labor remains a key state legislative issue in 2024: State lawmakers must seize opportunities to strengthen standards, resist ongoing attacks on child labor laws
-
Youth subminimum wages and why they should be eliminated: Young workers face pay discrimination in 34 states and DC