Category: Class

A new report from Georgetown researchers details the effect of the recent recession and recovery on jobs, broken up by educational attainment. The New York Times and the Washington Post have coverage. Relying on Census data, the researchers figure out how many jobs were lost or gained during the recession and recovery for individuals with… Continue reading What sort of people actually lost jobs during the recession?

Pew is out with an opinion survey about Medicare. Among others things, Pew asked people whether deficit reduction or preserving Medicare and Social Security benefits should have the higher priority. Republicans answer that question very differently depending on their income level: Only Republicans making over $75k per year think deficit reduction should have the higher… Continue reading Another interesting GOP class divide

In my previous post, I argued that the wage gap — the difference in income between similarly situated men and women — is more important an issue than generally regarded. In addition to its sexist nature, the wage gap significantly contributes to poverty. On the most extreme end, the incidence of poverty among single mothers… Continue reading The tricky causation of single mother poverty and inequality

CEPR is out with a new report about good jobs in the modern economy. In the report, CEPR defines a good job as one that pays $18.50/hr (the inflation adjusted male median wage of 1979), has employer-provided health insurance, and has an employer-sponsored retirement plan. In total, 24.6 percent of the population had good jobs… Continue reading The decline of good jobs and its significance

I came across this helpful chart from the OECD, which plots inequality over time for both the US and the 34-country OECD average: It really deserves pointing out that people are not lying when they remark that the United States is a high-inequality society. If we had enough political will, this could easily be changed,… Continue reading United States inequality relative to OECD inequality