Economic Policy Institute

September 7, 2020 – A new report by the Economic Policy Institute discusses the importance of unions and workers’ collective action in establishing an equitable economy, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. The authors find that unionized workers earn on average 11.2% more in wages than nonunionized peers (workers in the same industry and occupation with similar education […]

August 13, 2020 – New data from the Center for American Progress, Economic Policy Institute Policy Center, and the Progressive Caucus Action Fund show that existing state unemployment insurance (UI) leaves working families thousands of dollars in the red each month. On July 31, the GOP-led Senate allowed Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation—the $600-per-week boost to unemployment insurance Congress […]

August 10, 2020 – A new report by EPI Senior Economist and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Research Robert E. Scott finds that President Trump’s trade policies have failed to curb offshoring—and they have not addressed the root causes of America’s growing trade deficits and the decline of American manufacturing. In addition to the Trump administration’s overall […]

Commerce department data released today confirmed what everybody already knew: gross domestic product collapsed faster in the second quarter of 2020 than it has in any other recorded quarter of U.S. history. (This data has been tracked quarterly since 1947.) The U.S. GDP, the widest measure of economic activity, contracted at a 32.9% annualized rate […]

June 1, 2020 – A new report by director of EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy Valerie Wilson and senior economist Elise Gould explores how racial and economic inequality have left many black workers with few good options for protecting both their health and economic well-being during the coronavirus pandemic. Persistent racial disparities in health […]

April 14, 2020 – Over 180 organizations across the United States, including the Economic Policy Institute, signed a letter to U.S. House and Senate leadership urging them to quickly pass $500 billion in unrestricted aid to states, territories, and local governments. While the first three federal bills included vital resources for the important work of state, territorial, […]

December 18, 2019 – A new report by EPI Director of Research Josh Bivens examines how to make federal aid to state and local governments more transparent, effective, and responsive to recessions. Bivens explains that in 2018, state and local governments alone spent roughly $2.8 trillion, or almost 14% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), […]

Sept. 20, 2019 – A new report by EPI Distinguished Fellow Lawrence Mishel and Director of Government Affairs Celine McNicholas critiques a recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel advice memo that claims Uber drivers should be considered independent contractors rather than employees. The authors argue that even if you accept the legal framework […]

Feb. 5, 2019 – In a new report, EPI Senior Economic Analyst David Cooper shows that the Raise the Wage Act of 2019 would directly or indirectly lift wages for 39.7 million workers—26.6 percent of the wage-earning workforce. The Raise the Wage Act of 2019 raises the federal minimum wage in six steps to $15 […]

Sept. 5, 2018 – In a new paper, EPI Distinguished Fellow Lawrence Mishel and UC Berkeley Economist and EPI Research Associate Sylvia Allegretto find that teachers’ wages and compensation continue to fall relative to comparable workers. When adjusted for education, experience, and demographic factors, teachers earned 4.3 percent less than other workers in 1996, while in 2017 […]

Sept. 11, 2017 – In a new report, EPI budget analyst Hunter Blair finds that the state and local governments have taken a larger role in infrastructure spending, even though it is often more efficient for the federal government to lead the way. In 2015, 77 percent of public spending on transportation and water infrastructure came […]

August 11, 2017 – As the GOP push to pass “tax reform” starts to heat up, policymakers will debate whether the corporate tax rate is too high or too low. A standard but misleading talking point for those wishing to give more tax breaks to corporations is that the United States has one of the […]

May 10, 2017 – A new paper by EPI Senior Economic Analyst David Cooper and Research Assistant Teresa Kroeger finds that employers steal billions of dollars from American workers’ paychecks each year, causing harm for working families, taxpayers, and the U.S. economy. While wage theft is difficult to measure and can occur in many forms, […]

March 22, 2017 – Despite false rhetoric that current law burdens American households with high out-of-pocket costs, the replacement plan put forth by President Trump and Republicans in Congress, known as the American Health Care Act (ACHA), would substantially increase out-of-pocket costs. According to a new analysis by EPI Research Director Josh Bivens, Americans would […]

Feb. 28, 2017 – In a new report, Stanford professor and EPI research associate Martin Carnoy finds that voucher programs that promote private schooling have not delivered on promised improvements in educational outcomes. Rather, they tend to divert effort away from investments in public education that have been shown to improve educational attainments. Carnoy reviews […]