New from North Star Policy Action: health care costs are rising for working Minnesotans and wages aren't keeping up. Our new report breaks down what's driving the increase.

🚨 New report Trump’s economic policies drove a historic spike in the cost of living for MN families in 2025 Minnesotans paid $4.6 BILLION more for basic necessities than they would have if costs had followed historical trends, as costs rose 6.1% across counties. northstarpolicy.org/affordabilit...

Study: Operation Metro Surge cost Minnesota an estimated 4,600 hospitality jobs in 3 months minnesotareformer.com/briefs/study...

New report from North Star Policy Action and the W.E. Upjohn Institute: Operation Metro Surge had devastating impacts on Minnesota’s Leisure and hospitality industry.

ICE’s Operation Metro Surge cost Minnesota thousands of jobs between December 2025 and February 2026 impacting workers, families, and businesses across the state. Our report on the economic impacts was featured by COURIER at their new MN newsroom: couriermn.com/news/how-ope...

A recent Star Tribune headline declared the $15 minimum wage in the Twin Cities caused "higher pay, fewer jobs" — citing research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, pushed by the industry group Hospitality Minnesota.

The grades are in — Minnesota just got its ASCE Infrastructure Report Card, and the results aren't good. The MN Senate has a bonding bill on the table right now. This is how we change the grade. #MNLeg #MNSenate #northstarpolicyaction

Our latest analysis featured in the Minnesota Reformer: ICE is bad for business. New data show Operation Metro Surge cost Minnesota thousands of jobs, including 5,700 in hospitality and 4,400 in construction. minnesotareformer.com/2026/04/23/r...

This Tax Day, we’re thinking about how working families are paying the price for Trump’s massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, offset by nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts.

“Most of the human cost of the past few months cannot be undone through state assistance. But the economic damage from Operation Metro Surge provides an opportunity for the state to take meaningful, reparative action.” 👏👏👏 — @aaronrosenthal.bsky.social, Research Director at NSPA Source: WCCO

NEW REPORT: State data confirms that Operation Metro Surge had a damaging impact on Minnesota’s economy, particularly for workers and businesses in the Twin Cities. northstarpolicy.org/metro-surge-...

We testified in the MN Senate today in support of commonsense protections for workers as AI rapidly reshapes the workplace. Our research shows that though 1 in 3 Minnesota workers are at high risk of exposure to generative AI, women and workers in low-union occupations still face the highest risk.

Today we’re testifying in support of a bill to ban surveillance-based wage discrimination in the Minnesota House. Here’s what that means:

Today we testified before the MN House Workforce, Labor & Economic Development Committee on our research on Generative AI’s impacts on MN workers. The testimony comes as lawmakers introduce bills to set guardrails for AI in the workplace. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh4B...

800,000 Minnesota workers are at high risk of exposure to generative AI. AI is rapidly reshaping workplaces but Minnesota lawmakers have yet to pass any AI regulations or worker protections. Our Research Director outlined the paths for moving forward on WCCO: www.youtube.com/shorts/lsCLK...

$106 million. That’s how much workers in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area lost in wages during Operation Metro Surge according to our new research at North Star Policy Action. This week, Planet Money’s The Indicator broke down our findings. Listen to the clip: youtube.com/source/UbdcS...

Yesterday on Fox 9, our Research Director @aaronrosenthal.bsky.social, broke down what MN lawmakers can do to regulate AI and protect workers. 1 in 3 MN workers face high exposure to Generative AI yet Minnesota has not passed laws governing AI’s use in the workplace. m.youtube.com/shorts/TXUyB...

This is such important work, and practically in real time, which is very important. Also, shows economists can apply our skills to aid the resistance!

New research with @aaronsojourner.org of the @upjohninstitute.bsky.social posted on @northstarpolicy.org's blog. We find that Operation Metro Surge caused declines in employees working, hours worked, and businesses open, leading to an estimated $106 million wage loss for Twin Cities workers.

BREAKING: In just six weeks, Minnesota workers lost over $100 million in wages due to Operation Metro Surge. This means millions of dollars didn’t make it to Minnesota families and small businesses, a conservative estimate that likely understates the full impact.

Our new report makes three things clear: 1. AI plays an increasingly large role in MN workers' lives. 2. Workers are anxious about this role and believe new regulations are needed. 3. MN policymakers need to pass commonsense laws to align AI innovation with worker welfare.

NEW REPORT: Rapid AI expansion is outpacing worker protections in Minnesota.

Yesterday, at the Minnesota House Workforce, Labor, and Economic Development Committee, our Executive Director testified on the ongoing ripple effects of federal immigration enforcement on Minnesota’s economy.

Operation Metro Surge may be ending but the long-term human and economic impacts are still unfolding. Federal officials have announced that immigration enforcement in Minnesota will draw down, but ICE activity remains in the state and it’s not yet clear how conditions on the ground are changing.

The @prospect.org just released new reporting citing our analysis on Operation Metro Surge. Toplines: • $18M/week in taxpayer costs • $80M/week in lost economic activity • Long-term damage to schools, healthcare, and housing •MN corporations need to be held accountable prospect.org/2026/01/28/m...

Yes, one underreported part of this is the economic loss for cities as the result of federal occupation. Talked to some great folks at North Star Policy Action about that, who said, "It’s an economic and social dead zone. It’s worse than the pandemic." prospect.org/2026/01/28/m...

Things we could do in MN with the $18 million a week it costs taxpayers to fund Operation Metro Surge: - Provide Medicaid coverage for 5,000 Minnesota children - Fund a full week of SNAP benefits for every eligible Minnesotan - Cover the annual salaries of 225 school mental health professionals

New Report: The Cost of Operation “Metro Surge” finds that federal enforcement in Minnesota is costing taxpayers at least $18 million per week — a conservative estimate of personnel, lodging, detention, and police overtime costs. Read the full report: northstarpolicy.org/metro-surge-...

“Corporate and political leaders are seriously underestimating how mad Minnesotans are about these ongoing federal attacks.” — North Star Policy Action

As ICE enforcement disrupts Minnesota’s workforce and economy, major corporations have refused to speak up. Our ED @jakeschwitzer.bsky.social breaks down what that silence is costing the state in @minnesotareformer.com ⬇️ minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/16/b...

NEW FACT SHEET: ICE enforcement is actively disrupting Minnesota’s economy. Read the full fact sheet here: northstarpolicy.org/business-imp...

We’re continuing to update our fact sheet as new evidence and developments emerge in the killing of Renee Nicole Good and the federal ICE surge in Minnesota. You can read the fact sheet here: northstarpolicy.org/ice-in-minne...

FACTS: Here's what we know about ICE in Minnesota and the tragic killing of Renee Nicole Good Read the full fact sheet: northstarpolicy.org/ice-in-minne...

Today we released a new fact sheet documenting the misinformation campaign that preceded and followed the tragic killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis: northstarpolicy.org/ice-in-minne...

Yesterday, North Star Policy Action Executive Director Jake Schwitzer testified before the Minnesota Senate on how tariffs, anti-immigrant policies, health care cuts, and worker protection rollbacks are creating uncertainty across Minnesota’s economy. Full clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ1A...

The Trump administration is failing to agree on whether to extend key ACA subsidies, subsidies that 22 million Americans rely on, including tens of thousands of Minnesotans. Without action, health insurance premiums will spike as early as next week. Here’s how it this would impact Minnesota:

The Minnesota Chamber’s new 2026 Business Benchmarks report offers a snapshot of the Minnesota economy but leaves out some major forces shaping what employers + workers are actually experiencing.

Last night, we were honored to receive the CTUL Ally Leadership Award from our partners at El Centro de los Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL). The award recognizes our shared work to end worker exploitation and wage theft in Minneapolis’s construction industry.

NEW REPORT: Minnesota has committed to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040, but we’re not on track to get there. Our new report, Expanding Possibilities, shows how lifting Minnesota’s ban on new nuclear construction could change that. READ: northstarpolicy.org/expanding/

Yesterday we stood with labor allies and released our new report, A Roadmap to Compliance: Strengthening Worker Protections in Minneapolis Construction. We called on the city to take bold steps to eliminate wage theft, retaliation, sexual assault, and labor trafficking.

We love to brag when Minnesota is the best. This isn’t a list we want to be high on. Minnesota has the fourth largest teacher pay penalty in the country. Our teachers make 33% less than other workers with a college degree. Nationwide, the gap is the largest it’s ever been and growing.

Minnesota's Republican Members of Congress voting to hurt tens of thousands of their constituents, so they can send even more money to their billionaire supporters. This is the real class warfare, and Minnesotans are losing.

This is solidarity! ✊ THANK YOU to everyone in our pro-labor community who showed up and spoke up yesterday to protect prevailing wage for Bloomington workers. 🗣️ Together, we did it. 👉 We’ll keep showing up when pro-worker policies are up for debate. #WhenWeFightWeWin #BloomingtonMN #prevailingwage

Just wait until people find out their health care and food costs are skyrocketing, and their kids' childcare is closing all so that we could spend $170 billion more doing this unpopular stuff.

The Giant Nightmare bill moving through the Senate is bad. Really bad. Our @aaronrosenthal.bsky.social wrote about the growing threat to workers and consumers from AI, and why we needed Minnesota's members of Congress to strike this moratorium on regulations. www.startribune.com/big-beautifu...

📉Our State of Working Minnesota report finds a major shift: fewer Minnesotans are earning poverty wages. In 2024, the share of workers earning below poverty wages dropped by more than 12%. Recent gains have been particularly strong in communities of color. 🔗 northstarpolicy.org/sowmn-2025/

Health insurers are reporting 14-26% increase in health care costs in MN next year, driven by Trump and Congressional Republicans cutting people's health insurance. 🚨NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THIS DISASTROUS BILL. Even if you get to keep your insurance, your premiums are about to skyrocket!

Great rundown of labor legislation from @maxnesterak.bsky.social and @minnesotareformer.com. Lots of great pro-worker defense! Also happy to see our worker misclassification numbers cited and even happier to see that MN will be carrying out its own analysis thanks to @emmagreenman.bsky.social

As @mprnews.org points out, MN passed almost no new AI laws even as the federal gov't seeks to ban state AI regulation for 10 years. We found that 500,000 MN workers are at high risk of AI impact and highlighted ways to align AI innovation with worker welfare. The time for action is now!

Our State of Working Minnesota report shows the state’s Black unemployment rate is the lowest in the Midwest after being the region’s highest during the Great Recession. The gap between Black and white unemployment is at its lowest level in decades. There’s more work to do, but progress matters.