The vast majority of America's workers have largely been shut out of the nation’s economic growth over the past three decades, reports the 12th edition of The State of Working America from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Released today and available online, the report finds that the typical American family has added hundreds of extra hours of work each year, while also earning better education credentials, yet is still struggling to keep up.

We can strengthen the U.S. economy and invest in our nation's infrastructure and workers. A long-term plan for growth is needed, and it certainly doesn't involve austerity. 

Yale University Professor Jacob Hacker and Roosevelt Institute Founder Nathaniel Loewentheil today released their new paper,  Prosperity Economics: Building an Economy for All , at the Economic Policy Institute.   This bold paper provides a comprehensive plan to grow our nation’s economy in a way that works for everyone. 

The H-2B guest worker visa program is plagued by fraud and abuse. Designed to allow employers to hire temporary guest workers for nonagricultural labor, the H-2B program lacks provisions, which would protect workers from wage theft, forced labor, predatory recruitment fees and other forms of exploitation. Guest workers in the United States are legally tied to their employer and are often forced to assume crippling debts for the opportunity to pursue low-wage work.

A group of prominent economists today urged President Obama and congressional leaders to raise the federal minimum wage , which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour for three years. In a letter to the president and lawmakers they wrote: 

A higher minimum wage at this juncture will not only provide raises for low-wage workers but would provide some help on the jobs front as well.

Lots about inequality in the news in recent days, especially with the release of Tim Noah’s book on the topic, “The Great Divergence.”

Yet one key reason often left out in analyses of the nation’s rising inequality is the decline of union density.  Correcting that omission, the Economic Policy Institute ( EPI ) hammers home the point that up into the 1970s, labor unions both sustained prosperity, and ensured it was shared

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is long on rhetoric but short on details when quizzed about his economic policies. But the one concrete concept he embraces wholeheartedly is Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) House-passed  budget for the 1% blueprint.  

There is an alternative to the Romney/Ryan/Republican budget for the 1% and that’s the “Budget for All” proposal drafted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The Economic Policy Institute ( EPI ) and The Century Foundation have just released a detailed comparison of the two budgets. 

Most recent young college graduates are carrying a heavy debt load for their education, and they face a harder time paying it off because their wages have plummeted as well—part of a decade-long decline, according to a new Economic Snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute ( EPI ).

So much for Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) stewardship of the Wisconsin economy and his promise that eliminating collective bargaining rights for public employees and massive budget cuts would turn the Badger State into a job growth miracle. A report today from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that Wisconsin is the only state in the nation to suffer “statistically significant” job loss during the 12 months from March 2011 to March 2012.

The surest route to returning to the productivity, economic growth and employment the United States experienced in the post-World War II era and again in the late 1990s requires a substantial increase in public investments, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute ( EPI ) finds.

But the biggest obstacle facing any significant boost to public investments, writes EPI Economist Josh Bivens is “how myopic the economic debate about budget deficits has become in the United States.”

A little more than a year ago, under the guise of wrestling with state fiscal challenges, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and his Republican allies in the state legislature launched an all-out attack on public-sector workers, claiming teachers, nurses, firefighters and snow plow drivers were the cause of the state’s financial problems and were impeding job growth. Doug Hall, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute ( EPI ), looks at the state's job figures and separates Walker's fiction from the facts.