Economic Policy Institute

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Economic Policy Institute The working people's think tank for 40 years. Focused on making the economy work for everyone. Sign up for our newsletter: https://www.epi.org/signup/

EPI was the first — and remains the premier — organization to focus on the economic condition of low- and middle-income Americans and their families. Its careful research on the status of American workers has become the gold standard in the field of economics. EPI conducts original research according to strict standards of objectivity, and couples its findings with outreach and popular education. Its work spans a wide range of economic issues, such as trends in wages, incomes, and prices; health care; education; retirement security; state-level economic development strategies; trade and global finance; comparative international economic performance; the health of manufacturing and other key sectors; global competitivenes and energy development. From its findings, EPI publishes books and reports; sponsors conferences and seminars; briefs policy makers; as well as provides support to national, state, and local activists and community organizations. Also, EPI is cited more than 3,000 times a year in the print media alone, and its staff is seen or heard by approximately 85 million television and radio viewers and listeners.

Although the overall labor market has weakened, Latina workers have record-high employment rates in 2026. But Latino wor...
10/09/2026

Although the overall labor market has weakened, Latina workers have record-high employment rates in 2026. But Latino workers and young Hispanic workers are not experiencing similar gains.

Learn more:

Around this time last year, we wrote about the remarkable resilience Hispanic workers were showing in the labor market. Despite weaker job growth, the share of Hispanic workers with a job remained high, largely driven by a record-high employment rate among Latina workers. Today, despite the ongoing....

Trump wants to divert child care funds from low-income working families to married couples with a stay-at-home parent.Su...
09/28/2026

Trump wants to divert child care funds from low-income working families to married couples with a stay-at-home parent.

Supporting economically struggling families, including full-time caregivers, is a good idea. Taking money from working families to do it is not.

The Trump administration is proposing a new plan to divert child care funds away from working families, which will lead to a loss of child care subsidies for some, increased child care costs for everyone, and the possible closure of some child care providers.

The Trump admin has accelerated funding cuts of data-collecting agencies & worked to degrade their independence, includi...
09/28/2026

The Trump admin has accelerated funding cuts of data-collecting agencies & worked to degrade their independence, including at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This will make it harder for economists & policymakers to make timely sense of changes in the labor market.

Government funding cuts are undermining the Bureau of Labor Statistics' ability to provide the reliable information that businesses and policymakers need to make sound decisions about the economy.

Wages for typical workers have been largely suppressed since the 1970s while wages for the top 1% skyrocketed. This was ...
09/23/2026

Wages for typical workers have been largely suppressed since the 1970s while wages for the top 1% skyrocketed. This was not inevitable. It was a policy choice. And this rising inequality is the root cause of today's affordability challenges.

We break it down in 10 charts 👇

Wages for typical workers lag far behind productivity growth. It hasn't always been this way and does not have to be this way. These 10 charts outline the historical context of workers’ wage trajectories, and what can be done to fix the gaping disparities.

CEOs were paid 325 times as much as the typical worker in 2025. CEO pay GREW 14%. Did your pay grow 14%? Does the CEO at...
09/17/2026

CEOs were paid 325 times as much as the typical worker in 2025.

CEO pay GREW 14%.

Did your pay grow 14%?
Does the CEO at your company work 325 TIMES HARDER than you?

It hasn’t always been this way. When workers had more power (for example, when 3x more workers belonged to a union)—CEOs were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker.

Policymakers can rein in excessive CEO pay—implementing a more progressive tax policy or corporate governance reforms. But it's time for workers to take their power back.

Key findings: CEO pay at the top 350 U.S. firms rose 14.0% in 2025 to an average of $27.9 million. CEOs made 325 times as much as the typical worker in 2025. It hasn’t always been this way. In 1965, CEOs were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker. From 1978–2025, top CEO…

Employers spend over $1.5 billion each year on union-busting. A new tool from LaborLab helps workers shed light on the ...
09/14/2026

Employers spend over $1.5 billion each year on union-busting.

A new tool from LaborLab helps workers shed light on the highly secretive and highly profitable union-avoidance industry.

When workers seek to form a union, employers often respond by hiring union-avoidance consultants to dissuade workers from their organizing efforts. A recent EPI and LaborLab report estimates that employers spend over $1.5 billion each year on union avoidance. Last week, our partners at LaborLab rele...

Next week, the Census Bureau will release income and poverty data for 2025, which may show early signs of a softer labor...
09/10/2026

Next week, the Census Bureau will release income and poverty data for 2025, which may show early signs of a softer labor market and weaker safety net.

The 2026 story is still unfolding and is likely to be worse. Your preview 👇

The 2025 Census data may show how the Trump administration’s policy choices were starting to impact the economic well-being of workers and their families last year.

IOWA 📣 Lawmakers intentionally eroded child labor protections to be weaker than federal law. Now, new data show Iowa emp...
09/10/2026

IOWA 📣 Lawmakers intentionally eroded child labor protections to be weaker than federal law. Now, new data show Iowa employers accounted for nearly 10% of federal child labor violations nationwide, even though Iowa has only 1% of the US population.

This is what happens when you deliberately weaken state child labor standards to be in violation of federal child labor laws: Businesses violate federal laws more frequently and invite more federal investigations of suspected violations.

Newly released records from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) identify 108 child labor violations found in Iowa in 2025, out of 1,114 nationwide. That means Iowa accounted for 9.7% of the nation’s child labor violations, while only making up 0.95% of the population. On ...

Affordability: it's the outcome of a race between income and prices.Heidi Shierholz and Josh Bivens' latest in AFT's Am...
09/09/2026

Affordability: it's the outcome of a race between income and prices.

Heidi Shierholz and Josh Bivens' latest in AFT's American Educator covers the breadth of options to resolve the affordability crisis when we address the policy choices that got us here.

Outside of a crisis or recession, Americans’ perceptions of how the country and economy are being managed have never been so negative. Many have attributed this voter unhappiness to a crisis of “affordability.”

With sectoral bargaining, wage and benefit standards are negotiated by unions and employers for all employers in a parti...
09/08/2026

With sectoral bargaining, wage and benefit standards are negotiated by unions and employers for all employers in a particular sector or industry, as opposed to the typical worksite-by-worksite or employer-by-employer system in the United States.

More workers get the benefits of the bargaining, and there is less risk of a race to the bottom by employers seeking to undercut wages and benefits.

It’s no secret that our weak, outdated labor law is failing the millions of workers who want unions at their workplaces.  Republicans have repeatedly blocked federal legislation to strengthen the law.  This untenable situation has been made worse by President Trump destroying the independence of...

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