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NewsFlash: May 30, 2007
New Study Confirms EPI’s Analysis of Economic Trends & Challenges
The Economic Policy Institute has always been proud to provide sound and timely research on living standards trends. Last week some of the prominent findings from the institute’s flagship publication, the recent State of Working America, 2006/2007, were confirmed by a newly released report from the Pew Trusts’ new two-year initiative, the Economic Mobility Project (a joint effort of the American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution, Heritage Foundation, and the Urban Institute).
The Economic Mobility Project’s first report, “Economic Mobility – Is the American Dream Alive and Well?” highlights two of the major findings that were profiled in the Introduction to the State of Working America, which was publicly released for Labor Day weekend, 2006.
1. There has been a remarkable and widening gap between the growth rate of productivity and that of wages, compensation and family incomes since 2000.
2. The earnings of men in recent years are lower than those of similarly educated men of the same age in the early 1970s. The Project shows this by age and includes all income (not just earnings).
The Project’s report also includes data showing economic mobility lower in the U.S. than in many European countries – a topic addressed in a new chapter in the 2006-2007 edition of State of Working America – and data showing rising income inequality (i.e., a finding in ours and others’ work).
EPI President Larry Mishel welcomed the Project’s confirmation of EPI’s earlier findings: “This new report confirms that the signature economic challenge of our day is to reconnect pay and productivity growth so we can once again enjoy widely shared prosperity.”
Jared Bernstein, director of EPI’s living standards program, said, “It is a positive development that research organizations from across the ideological spectrum are in accord about the problems that working families face and correctly identify faltering wage growth as an important part of the problem.”
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