Ben Glasner

Abundant labor is not a byproduct of economic growth, it is a prerequisite. Just as physical infrastructure creates the potential for fast growth and widespread prosperity, a talented and healthy labor force helps the economy reach that potential.

Exceptional By Design

Improve Immigration Policy.

America underuses global talent. Skilled immigrants innovate, patent, and start firms at high rates. Improving legal pathways can fuel the Abundance agenda.

Modernize Unemployment Insurance.

The UI system is outdated and uneven across states. Reform can expand coverage to gig workers and entrepreneurs, make benefits more portable, and cushion shocks without discouraging risk-taking or career pivots toward growing industries.

Introduce a Wage Subsidy.

Boost take-home pay for low-wage workers while preserving hiring incentives.

Smooth Benefit Cliffs.

Sudden cuts to public assistance when earnings increase punish advancement and trap workers. Smoothing phase-outs would reduce “raise penalties,” support upward mobility, and help families pursue promotions, job switches, and better-paying opportunities.

Reform Occupational Licensing.

Over 1 in 5 U.S. workers need a license, often with inconsistent and excessive requirements that block mobility. Streamlining and recognizing credentials across states would open doors to middle-skill jobs and let talent move to where it’s needed.

Develop Portable Benefits.

Health and retirement benefits can trap workers in jobs they’d otherwise leave. Making benefits portable reduces “job lock” and empowers people to take risks, relocate, or pursue better matches. Check out

Ban Noncompete Agreements.

Noncompetes suppress wage growth and entrepreneurship by locking talent in place. Banning them would support worker bargaining power, speed knowledge diffusion, and help new firms form and hire.

America thrived on labor dynamism. Mid-century workers moved, switched jobs, and chased opportunity; productivity grew fast. But labor dynamism has declined, quits rates are down, and switcher premiums have faded. We need policies to get us back on track. Some Examples:

We should make it easier to find work, switch jobs, earn more, and match where our talents are most productive. Good policy is about letting people move, learn, and climb. Without it, reforms will stall: no housing without builders, no innovation without skilled labor.

The Abundance agenda has spotlighted supply-side barriers—housing, energy, tech. But one crucial ingredient remains under-discussed: workers. Without a dynamic, mobile labor force, efforts to build more, innovate faster, and deploy clean energy will run into a human bottleneck🧵

Increasing reliance on government transfer programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is shaping the politics of both parties. #SocialSecurity #Medicare #Medicaid #Politics #Economy #news

Tariffs and Manufacturing Jobs: Three Big Problems “American steelworkers, auto workers, farmers and skilled craftsmen… They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories and foreign scavenge...

Feel like this write-up will remain fresh and relevant for an uncomfortably long time.

Yes. Nothing says “Kaldor–Hicks efficiency” like eating away at social surplus with tariffs, then using the nonexistent gains to bail out the people you just hurt.

Link in the next post.

Thanks @benglasner.bsky.social & Adam Ozimek for making a compelling case for well-designed wage subsidies.

"In our version of a wage subsidy, the government sends money directly to low-wage workers in every single paycheck, raising their hourly wage."
#EconSky

A wage subsidy is direct, efficient, and scalable:
• Expands automatically in recessions
• Adapts to shocks like automation or AI
• Lifts up struggling labor markets
It’s the clearest way to rebuild a labor market where every job pays.

A wage subsidy avoids these pitfalls: delivering higher pay directly, efficiently, and without shrinking job opportunities.

Other fixes miss the mark:
➡️Minimum wage hikes risk cutting job opportunities.

➡️Tax credits like the EITC are delayed, complex, and leave out many workers.

➡️Buy American rules or tariffs cost taxpayers huge sums per job.

➡️gimmicks like no tax on tips barely move the needle

Unlike tax credits that show up once a year, a wage subsidy is built into every paycheck. It feels like earned pay, not a handout, making work more rewarding and easier to advertise as real take-home wages.

Our design follows an 80-80 rule:

Target wage = 80% of the national median wage among hourly workers

Subsidy = 80% of the gap (Target wage - Actual wage)
Base = at least $7.25/hr

That means: Workers always come out ahead, and raises from employers still matter.

A wage subsidy is simple: gov. tops up qualifying wages, boosting every paycheck without raising the cost of hiring. It raises take-home pay, encourages more work, and doesn’t punish employers. Because it targets wages (not income) there’s no benefit cliff.

The single best policy to help low-wage American workers Direct, efficient, life-changing

The challenge: 21 million workers earn less than $16/hr, two-thirds are women, and in states like WV & LA, 1 in 5 prime-age men don’t have jobs. Too many Americans face low pay or no pay. So, let’s talk about what a wage subsidy can do.

The Trump Proclamation ignores what Americans actually want.
✅ 71% of Trump voters
✅ 78% of Americans overall
…support more high-skilled immigration.
Why double down on fear and scarcity when we could build a system rooted in growth and opportunity?

The real threat to shared prosperity isn’t foreign talent, it’s a broken system:
🔹 Random H-1B lotteries
🔹 Green card waits
🔹 Anti-innovation rules
Administrative walls against skilled workers are the opposite of pro-worker policy.

Full EIG report: eig.org/exceptional-...

The Trump admin just “proclaimed” a massive new set of hurdles for H-1B workers to “protect American jobs.” Let’s be clear: this isn’t reform, it’s self-sabotage. High-skilled immigration raises wages, fuels innovation, and strengthens the economy we all share. The data is clear.

It is only de jure political censorship when it originates directly from the seat of power.

Everything else is just sparkling de facto regulation of speech.

Roughly 90 percent of counties that are significantly reliant on government transfer programs — meaning that more than 25 percent of their total income came from transfers — went to Trump in 2024.

What other trends do we find when we scrutinize the data? [1/9] 🧵

Not Just Suburban Sprawl — Dense Places Can Still Build Learning from DC and other Downtowns

Check out the original post on EIG's Agglomerations:

"Not Just Suburban Sprawl — Dense Places Can Still Build" - @jessrem.bsky.social

America’s housing crisis isn’t just about building more — it’s about building in the right places.
Proximity to jobs, transit, and opportunity matters.

#Housing #Innovation #HousingCosts #EconomicInnovationGroup #Economics #Construction #EconSky

The Great Transfer-mation - Economic Innovation Group Explore your community’s reliance on government transfers through EIG’s Great Transfer-mation Project.

You can explore the transfer report, including interactive maps of your county, in our full report: eig.org/great-transf... [9/9]