Economic Policy Institute

Orientation: left of centre and openly pro-union, founded in 1986 by economists including Robert Reich and Lester Thurow. Funding: foundations and labour unions; eight unions pledged support at its founding, and unions supplied about 29 per cent of its funding between 2005 and 2009. EPI is best known for its productivity-pay chart, which tracks how far a typical worker's pay has fallen behind productivity since 1979; its latest version puts typical hourly pay growth at about 0.6 per cent a year against 1.4 per cent for productivity. Expect firm positions on the minimum wage, collective bargaining and trade, with the underlying data tables published alongside the charts so you can test them.