EPI in the news

• We analyzed why 887 staff left MPS in recent years. Here’s what they said.

  The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit think tank headed by union leaders, estimates a family of one adult and one child in Milwaukee County needs at least $73,721 “to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living.”

  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | May 2, 2025
• US job growth hasn’t been this slow since Covid. Trump’s policies could chill it further

  “State and local government is the place where you often have safety net measures in place; so if we do go into a recession, seeing how well they’re holding up in terms of employment is also useful,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

  CNN Business | May 2, 2025
• Trump Quietly Took Away a Living Wage From Thousands of Federal Workers

  “Lower-wage federal contractors include janitors who clean government buildings, food service workers on military bases, cashiers in gift shops in national parks and security guards protecting federal property,” Samantha Sanders, the Economic Policy Institute’s director of government affairs and advocacy, told Truthout. “This pay cut is a blatant attack on these workers — everyday people all across the country trying to make rent, buy groceries, and support their families.”

  Truthout | May 2, 2025
• Rev. Barber arrested in Capitol Rotunda after praying against Republican-led budget

  “Forty-three percent of women and almost half of all children are poor and low income,” Barber told the crowd, citing an assessment of Economic Policy Institute data. “Somebody ought to say something … Somebody gotta challenge this budget.”

  Richmond Free Press | May 2, 2025
• 100 Days of the Trump Administration Onslaught Against Workers

  Many states have raised their own wage floors, but 20 states still use the federal minimum. The annual income of a single adult working full time at the federal minimum leaves this individual below the official poverty line in 2025. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that 14 million U.S. workers earn less than $15 per hour.

  Counterpunch | May 2, 2025
• Thanks to the Trump slump, Florida and other states are moving to eviscerate child labor protections

  Florida is not the first state to loosen child labor protections, or even the most aggressive in that effort. Last year eight states, all led by Republicans, did so, according to a tracking by the labor-affiliated Economic Policy Institute.

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  “This is a coordinated effort being led by a constellation of business lobbying groups and industry associations that would especially benefit from changes in child labor laws,” Nina Mast, a child labor expert at the EPI, told an Illinois state senate committee last year.

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  “This administration may be more open to looking at Department of Labor prohibitions on hazardous occupations for tens and to pull some of those back,” says Jennifer Sherer, an EPI analyst. “That’s what the weakening of state standards appears to be laying the groundwork for.”

  LA Times | May 2, 2025
• Millions of older workers lost jobs during Covid. Here’s how their employment prospects have improved

  Between March and April 2020, 5.7 million workers ages 55 and up lost their jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of federal data.

  CNBC | May 2, 2025

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