The State Of Working America 2004/2005 Author:Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, Sylvia Allegretto Economic Policy Institute The State of Working America, prepared biennially since 1988 by the Economic Policy Institute, includes a wide variety of data on family incomes, wages, taxes, unemployment, wealth, and povertydata that enable the authors to closely examine the effect of the economy on the living standards of the American people.