The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a research institution funded, chaired, and promoted by labor unions and labor union supporters. The Institute distributes research studies supporting the labor union agenda by promoting international trade restrictions,¹ substantial increases in minimum wages,² and claims that public sector union employees are underpaid.³

While it asserts that it is nonpartisan for tax reasons, Economic Policy Institute has close ties to current and former Democratic Party officeholders. Its founders include two Democratic Secretaries of Labor, Ray Marshall and Robert Reich, who continue to sit on EPI’s board. A third, Alexis Herman, also sits on EPI’s board. Minnesota Attorney General and former U.S. Representative Keith Ellison, a firm ally of organized labor, was also an EPI board member as of 2014.⁴ Democratic National Committee chair and Obama administration Secretary of Labor Tom Perez has also been added to the EPI board.⁵

As of 2022, AFL-CIO president Elizabeth H. Shuler serves as EPI’s chairman. ⁶ During the 2015 fiscal years for unions, contributions from labor totaled $1,648,993.⁷ According to EPI, 29 percent of its contributions from the 2013-2016 period came from labor unions.⁸

Background

In the mid-1980s, left-wing labor union-aligned economic policy advocates sought to counter the growing influence of free-market-based policy in the Reagan Administration. By 1986, a group of left-wing economists led by Jeff Faux of the National Center for Economic Alternatives had founded the Economic Policy Institute as a think tank to advance an agenda closely aligned with that of the international labor unions.

EPI’s founders are major players in left-Democratic economic thinking and labor policy making. Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of Labor, Ray Marshall; future Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton Robert Reich; American Prospect co-editor Robert Kuttner; and university professors Barry Bluestone and Lester Thurow were all part of EPI’s founding.⁵

Since that time, EPI has been a reliable mill for labor union, Democratic Party, and left-wing talking points on fiscal and economic issues. EPI has promoted the idea that public employees are underpaid,³  that international trade kills employment,¹ and that minimum wage increases will not lead to job loss.²

Ties to Radical Economists

In support of its heterodox positions on the minimum wage, the Economic Policy Institute frequently circulates letters signed by large numbers of economists that support EPI’s positions. However, upon further inspection, the economists supporting EPI’s views often come from far outside the economic mainstream.

The free-market Employment Policies Institute examined one such batch of letter signers and identified numerous outside-the-mainstream signatories. In addition to the usual cast of labor-union-aligned researchers, the letter was signed by at least 40 academics aligned with Marxism or other openly socialist economics doctrines.⁹ One of the signers, Paul Zarembka, edited a volume of “9/11 Truth” conspiracy literature.¹⁰

Funding

The Economic Policy Institute releases some information on its funding. According to EPI, it received 79 percent of its funding from 2013-2016 from foundations and labor unions.⁸

In 2014, foundation contributors to EPI included George Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society, the Ford Foundation, the Bauman Family Foundation, the Arca Foundation, the Nick and Leslie Hanauer Foundation, the Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Energy Foundation, and the Public Welfare Foundation.¹¹ EPI also received $525,000 from donor-advised funds, which can be used to anonymize the source of funding to groups.¹¹

Labor unions provided over $1.6 million to EPI in their 2015 fiscal years. The top union funders include the American Federation of Teachers; National Education Association; American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); Service Employees International Union (SEIU); the AFL-CIO; the United Auto Workers National Capital Council; and the United Steelworkers, which each provided at least $100,000 to EPI.⁷

Democracy Alliance

Democracy Alliance is a collective of wealthy left-progressive donors that meet at semi-annual conferences for the purpose of providing a list of recommended recipients to major donors. Economic Policy Institute is on Democracy Alliance’s list; it is described as a group that helps policymakers and public opinion understand as what they believe are issues that affect ordinary Americans. ¹²

Related Organizations

The Economic Policy Institute is reportedly related to a 501(c)(4) organization, the EPI Policy Center.¹³ EPI is also associated with the Economic Analysis and Research Network, an alliance of over 60 liberal think tanks and state-level policy organizations.¹⁴

1. Faux, Jeff. “Vicious Circle of Trade.” Economic Policy Institute. August 14, 2003. Accessed October 18, 2017. http://www.epi.org/publication/webfeatures_viewpoints_trade_circle/ 
2. “Minimum Wage.” Economic Policy Institute. 2017. Accessed October 18, 2017. http://www.epi.org/research/minimum-wage/
3. Orr, Andrea. “Public-sector workers earn less.” Economic Policy Institute. January 5, 2011. Accessed October 18, 2017. http://www.epi.org/publication/public_sector_workers_earn_less/ 
4. Economic Policy Institute, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2014, Part VII
5. “Board of Directors.” Economic Policy Institute. Accessed October 18, 2017. http://www.epi.org/about/board/
6. “Board of Directors.” Economic Policy Institute, Accessed November 30, 2022. https://www.epi.org/about/board/
7. Author’s analysis of data compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor Management Standards from Annual Reports of Labor Organizations (Forms LM-2) filed by labor unions in 2015 fiscal years.
8. “Funder acknowledgments and disclosure principles.” Economic Policy Institute. Accessed October 18, 2017. http://www.epi.org/about/funder-acknowledgments-and-disclosure-principles/ 
9. “About Those 600 Economists Who Support a $10.10 Minimum Wage.” MinimumWage.com. Accessed October 18, 2017. https://www.minimumwage.com/2014/02/about-those-600-economists-who-support-a-10-10-minimum-wage/
10. Zarembka, Paul, ed. The Hidden History of 9-11. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2008. https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-History-9-11/dp/158322825X
11. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted October 18, 2017.
12. “Organizations Archive.” Democracy Alliance. Accessed January 25, 2021. http://democracyalliance.org/investments/.
13. Economic Policy Institute, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2014, Schedule R Part II
14. “EARN: Economic Analysis and Research Network.” Economic Policy Institute. Accessed October 18, 2017. http://www.epi.org/earn/