# Economic Policy Institute The institutional voice of the American worker in policy debates. Founded in 1986, EPI is the only major think tank primarily funded by organized labor. Its $15-20M annual budget produces the wage data, inequality research, and labor market analysis that forms the statistical backbone of progressive economic arguments. When you see a chart showing that productivity and wages diverged in the 1970s, or that CEO-to-worker pay ratios have grown from 20:1 to 350:1, or that the minimum wage has lost 40% of its purchasing power since 1968 — that's likely EPI data. ## Key Research - **State of Working America Data Library:** The most comprehensive publicly available dataset on American wages, income, inequality, and living standards — used by journalists, policymakers, and researchers across the political spectrum - **Wage tracker:** Real-time analysis of wage trends by race, gender, education, and region - **Trade analysis:** Research on the labor market impacts of trade agreements (NAFTA, TPP, China PNTR) - **Minimum wage:** The most-cited research supporting minimum wage increases - **Union impact:** Quantitative analysis of how unionization affects wages, benefits, and inequality ## Labor Union Funding EPI's funding model is distinctive: labor unions (AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFT, NEA, UAW, and others) provide significant funding. This gives EPI a clear institutional perspective — it exists to represent working-class economic interests in a policy landscape dominated by corporate-funded institutions. Critics argue this makes EPI a union advocacy shop rather than an independent research institution. Supporters argue that every other think tank is funded by someone with an agenda — corporations, billionaires, foundations — and EPI's labor funding simply makes the institutional perspective transparent in a way that corporate-funded tanks don't. ## The Structural Position EPI occupies a unique niche: it's the *data provider* for the progressive economic movement. Where CAP produces policy blueprints and Brookings produces academic research, EPI produces the *numbers* — the statistical evidence that underpins progressive arguments about inequality, wages, trade, and labor rights. This makes EPI less visible than Heritage or Brookings in media appearances but potentially more influential in the long run: its data shapes how the entire policy conversation is framed. ## See Also - [[Center for American Progress]] — Progressive policy shop (broader scope) - [[Brookings Institution]] — Establishment economics (different institutional perspective) - [[Heritage Foundation]] — Conservative counterpart on economic policy - [[Think Tank Ecosystem]] — Full think tank landscape