On Tuesday, September 26 at 2:00 p.m., EPI President Lawrence Mishel and Policy Director Heidi Shierholz will appear at a forum on wage growth in the United States, hosted by the Hamilton Project at Brookings. Since the 1970s, wages for the typical U.S. worker have been nearly stagnant. The forum will explore what can and should be done to promote the economic growth that will lead to higher earnings for more American workers, and how we ensure that those gains are broadly shared.
Mishel will appear at a fireside chat along with Jason Furman, professor of practice at the Harvard Kennedy School, and moderated by Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post. Shierholz will appear on a panel discussion with Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Robert Greenstein, founder and president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and moderated by Jay Shambaugh, director of the Hamilton Project.
Mishel and Shierholz have long viewed wage stagnation as America’s most pressing economic challenge. They argue that stagnant wages are the result of policies that have allowed labor standards, business practices, and ideas of fairness to increasingly favor employers at the expense of workers. To raise wages, we should enact policies that tilt bargaining power towards working people. Their publications include:
This paper argues that broad-based wage growth is necessary to address a constellation of economic challenges the United States faces.
Because wage stagnation was caused by policy, it can be alleviated by policy. This paper shows how.
This paper shows how income generated in an average hour of work in the U.S. economy has not trickled down to raise hourly pay for typical workers.
This report helps explain how unions fit into the economy today; how they affect workers, communities, occupations and industries, and the country at large; and why collective bargaining is essential for a fair and prosperous economy and a vibrant democracy.
This report shows lower unemployment finally helps working people make up some lost ground on wages.
This report show there has been more broadly based wage growth in 2017, but the vast majority of workers are only beginning to make up for lost ground.
What: Forum on wage growth, hosted by the Hamilton Project at Brookings
When: Tuesday, September 26, 2017
2:00 pm–4:00 pm Eastern
Where: 1777 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006