Economic Policy Institute
@EconomicPolicy
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Nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank using the tools of economics for more than 30 years to defend and promote the interests of workers in economic policy debates.
Washington DC
Joined June 2009
“We shouldn’t see taxes as a boogeyman that the right says they are, we should see them as a tool.”—@AOC
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Higher top marginal tax rates—an idea recently championed by @AOC—could help equalize this pre-tax income growth by reducing the incentives of the privileged to rig the rules of the economy to send money their way.
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NEW: The value of the federal minimum wage is at its lowest point in 66 years. After the longest period in history without an increase, the minimum wage today is worth 27% less than 13 years ago—and 40% less than in 1968. Congress must #RaiseTheWage.
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NEW: States with abortion restrictions or bans have lower wages, weaker labor standards, and higher levels of incarceration compared to states where abortion is protected. Abortion rights are economic rights. Full stop.
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“The costliest crime in the U.S. is actually being committed by corporations,” says @Trevornoah, citing EPI research on wage theft. “Instead of following Black people around the store, security guards should be hovering over CEOs at their desk.”
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Forget quiet quitting—we need to talk about quiet fleecing. Workers are more productive than ever, but their pay hasn’t kept pace while top 1% wages have skyrocketed.
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NEW: Wages rose fastest for the top 1% and 0.1% of earners in 2021, while the bottom 90% took a pay cut. Inequality has skyrocketed over the past 40 years. This growing inequality isn’t inevitable—it is a result of policy choices to reduce worker power.
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- CEO compensation surged 940% since 1978.- Worker compensation inched up 12% since 1978. New paper by @LarryMishel and @JuliaWolfe94
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Why do we need the Protecting the Right to Organize Act? . Here's why:
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NEW: Wages for the top 1% skyrocketed 160% since 1979 and wages for the top 0.1% grew more than twice as fast at 345%. Meanwhile, wages for the bottom 90% grew just 26%.
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Don’t let the name fool you, “right-to-work” laws are designed to diminish workers’ collective bargaining power by making it harder to form unions. Michigan is ready to make history by becoming the first state in 60 years to repeal the anti-worker law.
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If the minimum wage had increased at the same pace as productivity growth over the last 70 years, it would be over $22 an hour today. The U.S. can certainly afford a $15 minimum wage. Learn more about why we need to #RaiseTheWage:
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“It is not a radical idea that the economy should work for everyone and not just those at the very top,” says @SenSanders at the #RaiseTheWage introduction. Watch:
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If the minimum wage had kept up with economic growth, it would be $18.85 today. #Fightfor15
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The Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act is what real health reform looks like.
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Washington DC raises its minimum wage to $15 an hour, giving 114,000 working people a boost.
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Black women earn less than white men in ALL occupations. #BlackWomensEqualPayDay #EqualPay
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Unions lower inequality. Full stop. Lawmakers must ensure all workers who want unions can organize without fear. #AFLCIOConv
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.@SenSanders bill allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices is an example of real health care reform.
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We could show these trends all day, but we wish we didn’t have to. How it started: How it’s going:
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Teacher shortage=shortage of good pay? The teacher retention crisis is only getting worse and children are suffering for it. Our latest report reveals the pay gap between teachers and similarly educated non-teachers grew to a record 23.5% in 2021.
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Our new report finds that a $15 minimum wage would increase tax revenue by between $7 billion to $13.9 billion and reduce expenditures on public assistance programs by between $13.4 billion to $31 billion.
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NEW: 32 million workers would receive a raise under a $15 minimum wage—and 24 million of them are in states where senators voted against it. Our new report shows how many workers would benefit in each state. #RaiseTheWage #FightFor15
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Today the Trump administration took their first major step towards allowing employers to legally take tips earned by the workers they employ.
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Not only did the real (inflation-adjusted) median household income rise in 2023, but it rose FASTER for lower-income households than those in the middle or at the top. This led to a drop in the official poverty rate of 0.4 percentage points to 11.1% in 2023.
Here are the latest facts about the economy. Real median household income rose sharply in 2023—a testament to the strength of the economic recovery. #Debate2024
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Real median household income growth declined in 48 states in Trump's first two years in office, according to our new analysis with @capitalandmain.
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One in nine U.S. workers are paid wages that can leave them in poverty, even when working full time. #PoorPeoplesCampaign
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Incredibly, the tax bill being voted on today raises taxes for the bottom 50 percent of earners.
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Unions are not only good for workers, they’re good for communities and for democracy. Our new report documents how high unionization levels are associated with greater economic, personal, and democratic well-being.
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How African-Americans have been shortchanged out of the materials to build wealth via @janellecj.
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FACT: Immigrants aren’t hurting the US economy. Here are the REAL facts on immigrants and the US economy. #VPDebate2024 #VPDebate #Debatenight .
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Inflation has been largely driven by higher corporate profit margins and supply-chain bottlenecks, not workers' wages. We have the data to prove it ⬇️.
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THREAD—Ahead of #LaborDay2019, EPI researchers reflect on the many ways in which the economy is not delivering for workers, in a series of essays.
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EPI's Gordon Lafer will join @SenSanders @SenWarren and others at the town hall on March 19th.
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The boost to workers' bonuses from the Trump/GOP tax cut? Barely one penny, writes @LarryMishel. #TaxDay
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To curb rising inequality, we need more unions. To make it easier to unionize, we need the PRO Act. #LaborDay
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As union membership has eroded, the share of total income that gets funneled to the rich has skyrocketed. #1u
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Salaries for the 1% grew nearly four times the rate of those in the bottom 90% of earners.
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As we near the end of #TeacherAppreciationWeek, a reminder that we can show our appreciation for teachers by paying them a fair salary. Teachers make between 2.0% and 32.7% less than other comparable college-educated workers, depending on the state.
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As union membership rose in the 1930s and 1940s, the bottom 90% gained significantly. But as the decline in union membership began accelerating after 1979, the top 10% took ever-larger shares of income. #1u #topcharts2019
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Employers are charged with violating federal law in 41.5% of all union election campaigns. Last night, @iamjohnoliver highlighted EPI research on employer tactics to thwart workers’ union organizing efforts and showed why Congress must pass the PRO Act.
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Corporate profits have contributed disproportionately to inflation. Through the third quarter of 2022, profits are still contributing well over 3 times as much to price growth as normal. #CPI.
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Abortion access is critical for women to be able to decide their own economic trajectories. The recent decision by @Walgreens to not distribute the abortion pill (mifepristone) in 21 states will put women’s lives and economic security at risk.
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Hostage-taking over the debt ceiling is threatening to restrict Medicaid & food assistance with additional “work requirements.” This is a failed policy based on false ideas about poverty, work, and labor markets.
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The #WorkplaceDemocracyAct, introduced today by @SenSanders and @repmarkpocan would begin to restore workers’ right to join together to improve their wages and working conditions. #1u.
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Reminder: 83% of the benefits of the GOP tax bill are going to the top 1%. #TaxScamiversary #6MonthsofTaxScam
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The minimum wage would be around $19 an hour if it had kept up with growing productivity. See more top charts of 2017:
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NEW: The Biden-Harris executive order establishing a $15 minimum wage for federal contractors will lift pay for up to 390,000 workers, with an average annual pay increase of up to $3,100.
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Newly released numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics project that six of the ten occupations expected to have the most total job growth over the next decade pay less than $27,000 a year.
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Florida is set to roll back over 100 years of child labor protections with a proposed bill that would allow 16-17-year-olds unlimited work hours, even on school nights.
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Lower unionization has reduced wages by 7.9% since 1979. But this deunionization wasn’t inevitable—it was a deliberate policy choice made on behalf of wealthy interests and corporations, and it can be reversed.
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NEW: Workers would be earning $10 more per hour if their wages had kept up with the increase in productivity over the past 40 years, according to our new report. Learn more from @LarryMishel and @joshbivens_DC:
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Children, many of them Black, brown & immigrant youth, are increasingly working hazardous jobs, and many are working long hours. States are failing them even as child labor violations are on the rise by trying to gut child labor laws.
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A $15 federal minimum wage would benefit 32 million U.S. workers and narrow racial and gender pay gaps. #RaiseTheWage
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Make no mistake: this deficit will be used as an excuse to go after Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
JCT dynamic score says the Senate tax bill would lose $1 trillion over a decade, even after accounting for growth.
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When employers don’t share the gains of increased productivity, keeping the benefits for themselves, inequality soars and workers suffer. This is not what a fair economy looks like.
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It's no wonder Starbucks workers are unionizing when 63% of the coffee giant’s workers make less than $15 an hour. Instead of union busting, Starbucks should pay their workers a living wage.
Scoop: Starbucks baristas at 100+ cafes in 40+ cities plan to welcome their new CEO with strikes today, demanding an end to alleged union-busting @SBWorkersUnited. Comes a day before shareholder meeting and a week before Howard Schultz’s Senate grilling.
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Social insurance programs kept millions of people out of poverty in 2021. These programs are clearly effective and policymakers must continue to prioritize poverty reduction and make these programs permanent.
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NEW REPORT: CEOs' compensation grew 940% since 1978.
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The Tax Cut and Jobs Act failed to result in businesses investing in their employees. This was true long before the economic turmoil of 2020.
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The minimum wage would be significantly higher if it had grown alongside productivity. #RaisetheWage
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NEW: The erosion of collective bargaining since 1979 has cost the median worker $3,250 annually. Declining unionization has driven 33% of the growth of the wage gap between high- and middle-wage earners. We need the PRO Act. Learn more from @LarryMishel:
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NEW: Our Company Wage Tracker shows how much hourly workers are paid at large retail and food service firms, including Starbucks, McDonald's, and Dollar General. Check out our interactive project with @Shift_HKS:
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NEW: Employers were charged with violating federal labor law in nearly 40% of union elections—and those are just the ones we know about. Using @NLRB data, we analyzed the charges, which include firings, retaliation, and changing work terms.
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NEW🚨: CEO pay soared nearly 19% in 2020 while corporations laid off millions of workers during the pandemic. CEOs made 351 times as much as the typical worker. Read our report:
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Abortion rights are deeply intertwined with economic rights. Period.
BREAKING: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed a repeal of the state's abortion ban. "If you don’t think abortion's about the economy, you might not have a uterus."
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Black–white wage gaps by education were larger in 2019 than in 2000 for all education groups.
When you combine that debt with the fact that black employees are paid less than whites with the same education and experience according to @EconomicPolicy . Combine that with the $156 billion in undervalued black homes according to @BrookingsInst.
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Today is #BlackWomensEqualPayDay, marking how far the average Black woman has to work into the new year—7 months—to make the same amount as the average non-Hispanic white man made in the previous year. Black women face a persistent pay gap, including in essential occupations⬇️
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Saturday marks 12 years since the last federal minimum wage increase. Since then, the minimum wage has lost 21% of its value. It is past time for Congress to do its job and #RaisetheWage to at least $15 per hour.
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We can’t ignore the role of corporate profits when we are talking about #inflation. Since the second quarter of 2020, profits have contributed more than a THIRD of price growth.
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Racial inequalities in wages, income, and wealth show that #MLK’s work remains unfinished | by @ValerieRWilson
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We must ensure our progressive economic agenda replaces the failed trickle-down policies that have created 40 years of unequal wage growth. Learn more from @LarryMishel and @joriskywalker:
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The Battle of Blair Mountain demonstrates how, 100 years on, workers are at the mercy of the powerful unless they have unions & their own power. Passing the PRO Act would be a fitting tribute to those who fought & died at Blair Mountain, writes @dskamper.
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Corporations already pay far less than the statutory tax rate. They don't need a tax cut.
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🚨 ALERT: CEO pay is OUT OF CONTROL! . 🤑 CEOs were paid 290x more than the typical worker in 2023 . 💵 CEOs took home an astronomical $22.2 million in compensation last year on average. ⚠️ CEO pay has skyrocketed 1,085% since 1978.
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"Do black economists matter?" asks @itsafronomics. The voices of black economists have been largely absent from the recent media coronavirus coverage.
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THREAT TO WORKERS: The Supreme Court could side with business interests over workers’ rights. 🧵
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Republicans want to take away critical investments into our Social Security, food stamps, student debt, and veteran healthcare while giving away *$2 trillion* in tax cuts for the ultra wealthy. #DontDefault .
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NEW: Economist @hshierholz has been named the next president of EPI. We are thrilled and honored to welcome her leadership in this pivotal moment for workers.
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Many #veterans work low-wage jobs and would benefit from raising the minimum wage. #VeteransDay
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