| Reviews / Comptes Rendus | Labour/Le Travail, 61

REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS

Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Sylvia Allegretto, The State of Working America, 2006/2007 (Ithaca, NY: ILR Press 2007)

THERE IS AN ONGOING debate in North America between commentators on the left and right over the types of jobs being created, who is performing those jobs, and the economic rewards that workers receive. This debate continues despite the fact that, by most measures, a small percentage of the population continues to accumulate an ever greater portion of the economic spoils available in society. It is a discussion driven by statistics, some of which are quite accessible while others are so opaque that only the most experienced analysts can begin to divine their true meaning. The State of Working America, 2006/2007 is a collection of compelling social and economic information that definitely falls into the former category rather than the latter.

This book has been produced biannually by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning American think tank, for the last ten years. It contains a wide array of data from which one main conclusion can be derived: social class is still a very relevant measure of how well people do economically. The authors – Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Sylvia Allegretto – begin their analysis with a discussion of productivity. This is an economic indicator that is of much concern to business commentators and others on the political right. The implication is that people are simply not working hard enough, and that they would do better economically and enjoy a higher standard of living if they would simply devote more time to labouring. In fact, productivity grew at an average of 3.3% per year from 2000 to 2005. (17) Americans are working very hard indeed.

Working harder has not paid off for average working and middle-income families. Their incomes dropped by 2.3% at the same time that productivity was increasing. (37) Working harder is not providing greater rewards for most people in American society. This is particularly true of non-white groups such as African- Americans and Hispanics. Gender-based analysis also proves of continuing value as the authors show the ongoing importance of both male and female wages on family incomes. Family incomes would have dropped precipitously had most families relied upon the wages of one income earner.

Educational attainment is shown to still be inextricably linked to income. Children from wealthier families tend to attend and complete college, while those from lower income groups are less likely to do so. Indeed, the authors surprisingly note that children in Britain – a traditional bastion of class difference – are more likely to enjoy social mobility than their American counterparts. Horatio Alger resides more in Europe than America.

The statistics on the workplace are particularly compelling. Workers absorbed most of the increased costs of health care between 2000 and 2004. (111) Unionized workers are much more likely to have health care coverage, and are less likely to make lower wages than their non-union counterparts. Compensation paid to corporate executives continues to vastly exceed anything paid to working-class and middle-class earners. CEO compensation increased by 186% between 1992 and 2005, while the average worker enjoyed a 7.2% increase during the same period. (112) Income disparity has led to serious overall wealth inequality. The bottom 80% of income earners only possess 20% of the economic wealth produced, while the top 20% controls 80% of it. (252) A significant percentage of the population – 12.6% – lives in poverty. (281)

The statistics on education, income, and wealth disparities are compelling but so too are the data presented on regional disparity. A major internal migration occurred in the 1990s as people moved from the North-Eastern states and California to the South and parts of the West other than California. However, most states across America lost jobs between 2000 and 2003. The loss of manufacturing jobs has been particularly grievous, and will continue to have a major impact on working families.

The authors conclude their analysis by comparing the state of working America to work in other industrialized countries. American productivity is the highest among the countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and its unemployment rate has been among the lowest. However, American workers also have the lowest vacation allotment. In comparison, Norwegian workers have much more vacation time and their country has a lower unemployment rate than the United States.

The overall image of the United States that is presented in this volume is one of a country with ever widening income inequality and lessening access to opportunity. Workers are labouring longer hours for less money, receiving less time off, and are unable to provide opportunity to their children. Families need two incomes to enjoy even working-class wages while corporate executives award themselves disproportionate incomes at the expense of the workers who actually create economic wealth. The United States is shown to be a nation plagued with worsening class inequality.

This book's statistical strengths are evident. It was clearly intended as a resource guide, but the evidence that it contains would have been even more compelling had it been accompanied by some more comprehensive analysis. For example, how should education inequality be addressed? The measures used by the authors are appropriate for economic analysis, but the inclusion of broader quality of life indexes such as access to social services would also have been appropriate. Some discussion of politics would also have been germane to this analysis. Economic policy is inextricably linked to legislative activity and even a brief analysis of working and middle-class voting patterns would have helped illustrate what economic priorities are favoured by the average American worker.

The small methodological shortcomings of this book do not seriously diminish the fact that it presents complex statistics in an accessible manner. It is also a volume that academics who value class-based analysis will want to have on their bookshelves.

It is a highly useful resource that can be used by readers who perhaps need it the most: average American workers who want to understand why they receive so little from the economy after having contributed so much to wealth creation in their country


JASON RUSSELL York University

Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.