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

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

3. Table 1: Hourly wage distribution, 2004

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

5. Figure 1: Real hourly wage growth, all, 1979- 2004

6. Figure 2: Real hourly wage growth, men, 1979- 2004

7. Figure 3: Real hourly wage growth, women, 1979-2004

8. Table 7: Annual family income distribution, 2001

9. Figure 4: Real median family income, 1947-2003

10. Figure 5: Annual growth real family income, 1947-2003

11. Figure 6: Share of wealth, by wealth level, 1962- 2001

12. Table 9: Average wealth, by wealth class, 1962-2001

13. Figure 7: Households with zero or negative net wealth, 1962-2001

14. Figure 8: Share of gains in wealth, 1983-2001

15. 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

16. Figure 10: Real value of the minimum wage, 1955-2004

17. Figure 9: Share of workers in unions, 1948- 2004

18. Table 6: Health-care coverage rates, by wage quintile 1979-2002

19. Table 8: Distribution of household wealth, 1962-2001

20. Figure 11: Prison and jail population, 1980-2003

21. 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. 655-673. [Available in Working Paper form: http://www.noapparentmotive.org/papers/schmitt_ijhs.pdf.] John Schmitt. How Good is the [US] Economy at Creating Good Jobs? Center for Economic and Policy Research Briefing Paper, October 2005. [http://www.cepr.net/publications/labor_markets_2005_10.pdf] Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Silvia Allegretto. The State of Working America 2004-2005. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005.

22. Three important economic distributions and the politics that shape them John Schmitt Center for Economic and Policy Research www.cepr.net