President Joe Biden is calling on oil and gas companies to start steering record profits away from shareholder pockets to give Americans some relief at the pump.

A new economic analysis suggests the approach could be key to lowering prices across the board.

Josh Bivens, research director for the Economic Policy Institute, recently deconstructed each major component impacting prices over the past year, including wages, corporate profits and supply-chain issues.

"It's overwhelmingly profits, it's not wages," Bivens reported. "Normally profits are about 11% to 12% of the final price of any good. But they contributed more than 50% to price growth over the 2020-21 period."

Normally, wages contribute about 60% to the price of goods, but last year labor came in at just under 8%. Supply-chain disruptions accounted for 38% of rising costs. Calls for a windfall profits tax have been largely absent in debates on how to tackle inflation, with some economists noting the drive to increase corporate profits is just business as usual.

Analysis by the group Accountable.US found top corporations producing food, energy, commodities, health care and housing delivered more than $140 billion to shareholders after raising prices.

Bivens argued a temporary tax on profits could help counterbalance the pricing power companies currently have over consumers.

"If the policy recommendation is to just ask them politely not to raise prices, that would be silly," Bivens contended. "But it really does put some policy options on the table, like an excess profits tax. You reduce the incentive to raise prices, you're not harming the economy's ability to move resources around in the long run."

Recent polling by Global Strategy Group suggests Americans are not buying the argument inflation is being driven by aggregate demand racing ahead of supply.

Seven in 10 Republicans, eight in 10 Independents, and nine in 10 Democrats blame corporate greed for rapidly rising prices.

Low-wage workers in Pennsylvania haven't seen a minimum-wage increase in more than a decade, but a new bill with bipartisan support would change that.

The Raise the Wage Act of 2025, introduced in both chambers of Congress on April 8, aims to gradually raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $17 per hour by 2030.

Andrea Grove, owner of Elementary Coffee Co. in Harrisburg, said the change would lead to bigger paychecks and boost the economy.

"There has been a lot of movement, a lot of momentum, a lot of bills presented to hopefully get the minimum wage increased, even just incrementally," she said, "and I would really love to see this actually go through this time."

An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute finds that increasing the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour by 2030 would affect one million workers in Pennsylvania and more than 22 million workers nationwide.

Grove said she works with a lot of small and micro-businesses, with most already paying more than the federal minimum wage. She said the minimum wage remaining low results in employers paying less.

"Nine dollars an hour isn't even very good for minimum wage at this point in time," she said, "and if you look at the increase in rising costs and just what it takes for just to live, that's not keeping up, and that's not keeping pace with what just the average person needs to work a 40 hour work week and be able to provide for themselves."

The Pennsylvania House already passed House Bill 1500, which would raise the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026. The idea has bipartisan support but the Senate has not yet acted on a similar bill.

Nebraska lawmakers have reached a compromise on a measure to roll back a minimum wage increase but labor group advocates said the deal goes against the will of voters.

Nebraskans approved a measure in 2022 to incrementally raise the minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 by the beginning of 2026. But Legislative Bill 258, sponsored by longtime grocery store chain owner, Sen. Jane Raybould, D-Lincoln, would reduce the increases to fall below the cost of living.

Now, lawmakers have reached a percentage-based compromise, which still limits wage increases.

Jodi Lepaopao, field director for the advocacy group Nebraska Appleseed, said the deal falls short of what Nebraskans voted for three years ago.

"We are a thumbs down on the compromise," Lepaopao stressed. "We want to be sure that we are upholding the will of the voters and the legislature does that."

Supporters of the compromise said it minimizes financial risk over time and offer as evidence data from the Midwest Bureau of Labor Statistics showing a fixed annual increase would be superior to tying increases to annual cost of living adjustments, which is the approach the current takes.

Lepaopao added the 2022 voter-approved measure was designed to help Nebraskans who most need the wage increase.

"This was to ensure that they were able to continue to meet their needs as costs continue to rise," Lepaopao explained. "This was for the rural workers in smaller communities so they don't lose their purchasing power."

The bill would also create a minimum a $13.50 hourly wage for 14- and 15-year-olds.


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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to cut a cut a majority of jobs at the federal agency responsible for worker health and safety is seen as a direct attack on Kentucky workers by labor unions in the state.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health could be trimmed from around 1,400 employees to fewer than 150. At the state level, House Bill 398 would also have dismantled Kentucky's worker protection standards and requirements.

Dustin Reinstedler, president of the Kentucky AFL-CIO, said similar proposals down the road are now more concerning.

"To think that Kentucky was supposed to fall back on the federal OSHA guidelines, and to think that it's under attack now, it's pretty alarming," Reinstedler stressed.

The federal cuts are expected to include the agency's 9/11 firefighter program, also known as the World Trade Center Health Program. The American Industrial Hygiene Association, the AFL-CIO and Laborers' International Union of North America have all launched campaigns to urge the feds to restore the agency's staff and funding.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reinstedler explained Kentucky relies on its data, research and recommendations to protect workers. He cited personal protective equipment, respirators, and HEPA vacuum systems as standards the agency set to protect workers from silica exposure.

"Myself, as a bricklayer, any time that you're cutting masonry or anything, or cutting concrete, you're throwing up silica into the air," Reinstedler pointed out. "There are guidelines against that."

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health scientists also study Black Lung disease, which affects an estimated 20% of coal miners in Central Appalachia. The agency's mine safety research is regularly used by coal country's key regulatory agency, the Mine Safety and Health Administration.


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