Three important economic distributions and the politics that shape them CEPR Basic Economics Seminar John Schmitt September 29, 2005

Todays talk Three important economic distributions Wages Incomes Wealth Political forces shaping these distributions

Table 1: Hourly wage distribution, 2004

Table 4: Hourly wage distribution, by race and gender, 2004

Figure 1: Real hourly wage growth, all,

Figure 2: Real hourly wage growth, men,

Figure 3: Real hourly wage growth, women,

Table 7: Annual family income distribution, 2001

Figure 4: Real median family income,

Figure 5: Annual growth real family income,

Figure 6: Share of wealth, by wealth level,

Table 9: Average wealth, by wealth class,

Figure 7: Households with zero or negative net wealth,

Figure 8: Share of gains in wealth,

Policies lowering bargaining power of workers, relative to their employers Decline in purchasing power of minimum wage Decline in unionization rate Economic deregulation Privatization (state and local) Welfare Reform Recessionary macroeconomic policy Pro-corporate globalization

Figure 10: Real value of the minimum wage,

Figure 9: Share of workers in unions,

Table 6: Health-care coverage rates, by wage quintile

Table 8: Distribution of household wealth,

Figure 11: Prison and jail population,

Reading List John Schmitt. Labor markets and economic inequality in the United States since the end of the 1970s, International Journal of Health Services, vol. 35, no. 4, pp [Available in Working Paper form: John Schmitt. How Good is the [US] Economy at Creating Good Jobs? Center for Economic and Policy Research Briefing Paper, October [ Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Silvia Allegretto. The State of Working America Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005.

Three important economic distributions and the politics that shape them John Schmitt Center for Economic and Policy Research