Economic Policy Institute

08/27/2026

Newly proposed legislation in Congress would provide double wages for overtime and benefit more than 13 million workers, according to our analysis.

The Double Wage for Overtime Act is a straightforward opportunity for lawmakers to tackle continued affordability concerns.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) set workplace norms that are still in use almost 90 years later. The FLSA established the 40-hour standard workweek and overtime protections for workers. It guaranteed pay at a rate of 1.5 times the standard hourly wage for work past the 40-hour mark. Over...

08/26/2026

NEW: Teachers earned 25.2% less than comparable college graduates in 2025, according to our new report with Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). This decades-long teacher pay penalty has taken a heavy toll on public education.

Teacher pay has fallen further and further behind. After accounting for inflation, public school teachers' weekly wages FELL 6.2% over the past three decades, while wages for other college graduates rose 28.8% over the same period.

Teachers were paid less than other college graduates in every state, with relative teacher pay gaps ranging from 10.4% in Rhode Island to 40.7% in Colorado. The teacher pay penalty was at least 25% in 25 states.

👉 Competitive pay is necessary to attract and retain qualified teachers. Reversing these trends will require targeted, sustained investment in public education at the local, state, and federal levels.

Read the report: https://www.epi.org/publication/the-teacher-pay-penalty-remained-high-in-2025-teachers-and-students-nationwide-are-still-paying-the-price-of-decades-of-neglect/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

08/25/2026

The right-wing is attacking access to direct democracy across the country, especially the South, trying to obstruct good worker and family friendly policies like minimum wage and paid leave from becoming law.

Last week, an Arkansas judge dismissed a case that would have advanced efforts to strengthen access to ballot measures.

Missouri faces a similar set back with a judge’s decision that will prevent a measure to strengthen ballot measures once they are passed. Montana has an election to preserve their ballot process coming up in November. Read more about these 2 at the links in the comments.

In recent years, state ballot initiatives have served as powerful tools to advance economic opportunity for working families. Voters directly have raised the minimum wage, secured paid sick leave, protected abortion access, enacted bail reform, expanded Medicaid, and increased funding for public edu...

08/13/2026

Workers - it's time to take our power back. Here's how 👇

What would happen if union membership in the United States tripled to 30%?

According to new Economic Policy Institute research, typical workers would earn more than $7,700 more each year, racial wage gaps would shrink, fewer people would be uninsured and $1.2 trillion annually would shift toward working people.

Heidi Shierholz writes, “It’s high time lawmakers translate the public’s near-record support for unions into policy.”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/affordabilitys-union-labor-pro-act-congress

08/10/2026

Black adults report being in the worst financial position in nearly a decade, according to a new survey.

In Trump's economy, concerns about employment and making ends meet increased sharply for Black adults and their families last year.

The Trump-Vance administration inherited a strong labor market with record employment and wage gains. But after a year of the administration’s economic mismanagement, workers are feeling more vulnerable to the softening labor market. While the president is busy touting the stock market’s perform...

08/06/2026

30 states have passed a version of the CROWN Act to ban hair discrimination, building momentum for a federal version to pass in Congress.

Expansions of civil rights laws like the CROWN Act are more urgent than ever given Trump administration attacks on nondiscrimination protections & DEI initiatives.

08/06/2026

"This is how we take back what's ours."

ICYMI United Steelworkers President Roxanne Brown's call-to-action breaks down how workers can reclaim their power; build a bigger, stronger middle class; and in the process save democracy.

Read it here 👇

We don't have to put up with rampant inequality. Tripling union membership would rebuild the middle class and even the scales for workers.

08/05/2026

Trump is taking BILLIONS of (YOUR) taxpayer dollars to pay for his horrific deportation attacks on your neighbors and communities. We built a calculator to show you what that money could have funded instead—in every U.S. state, city, and county.

👉 Check out EPI's new Cost of Deportations calculator to learn more.

The Trump administration is taking billions of _your_ taxpayer dollars to pay for mass deportations. The Cost of Deportations Calculator shows what could this money be used for instead.

07/29/2026

Congress has long underfunded worker protection agencies.

The 2027 Republican budget—if enacted—would deepen the damage by slashing funding for the Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board.

These cuts would leave workers more vulnerable to exploitation.

On June 9, the Republican majority on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved a 2027 budget that slashes funding for worker protection agencies. The bill includes a combined $71.9 million cut for the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) and the Occupational Safety and Health...

07/27/2026

What would the U.S. look like if we tripled union membership? Our new report shows it could mean:

⬆️ Higher wages
🏛️ A stronger democracy
🧑‍🏫 Better educational opportunities

👉 States with a higher share of union workers invest more in public schools 👈

Unions are also instrumental to protecting quality public education. States with higher levels of unionization are less likely to have universal voucher programs, which divert money away from public schools and toward private schools and homeschooling.

https://www.epi.org/blog/unions-are-key-to-high-quality-public-education/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social