In an article today, the New York Times quotes an economist from the Employment Policies Institute, describing it as “a nonprofit research group that studies issues of entry-level employment”:

The number of unemployed youths age 16 to 24 increased by 658,000 last summer, according to the Labor Department . And, the department’s monthly job report for May showed that the teenage unemployment rate was about three and a half times the national rate of 4.5 percent.

Some predict the situation will worsen with the passage of an increase to the federal minimum wage… “With the minimum wage hike, people who hire lower-skilled, entry-level workers are saying, ‘Hmmm, maybe I don’t hire that extra worker or maybe I hire someone in the job market a little longer,’ ” said Dr. Jill Jenkins, chief economist for the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research group that studies issues of entry-level employment.

“You’re going to see fewer teens who are going to be employed when you bump up the wage rates. More people are going to come out looking for those jobs.”

The Times description is taken almost straight off the Employment Policy Institute’s website, which states that the group “focuses on issues that affect entry-level employment.” Sounds like a neutral source of expertise, right? Wrong. The Employment Policies Institute is actually an anti-minimum wage group set up by corporate firms to counter (and impersonate) the liberal Economic Policy Institute. Too bad the Times either (a) didn’t know this or (b) didn’t think it was important enough to tell their readers.