Public Employee Press

Media Beat
Book Review
Report: The State of Working America

If you think you’re getting poorer and your children will have a harder time making ends meet than you, you’re probably right.

And you’re not alone. The Economic Policy Institute says the median income for U.S. workers is in free fall. (Median income is the midpoint amount that half of a group makes more than and half make less than.) The median has declined by almost 3 percent over the last 4 years.

In addition, each year fewer workers have health insurance coverage. The number of families falling below the poverty line has also increased steadily in this period of so-called recovery.

The EPI, a Washington think tank supported by the labor movement, has just released the Web version of their new “State of Working America,” which puts recent data in historical perspective.

The report’s bottom line is that the real wages of U.S. workers have been declining for a generation under successive presidents, and that this trend has accelerated under Bush.

Our total national wealth has increased in recent years, but the gains have not been shared with working families. Instead, the gap between the rich and the rest of us has grown wider.

“Working America” compares the U.S. to 19 other wealthy countries whose economic models include more social spending. The U.S. has worse income inequality, higher poverty rates, and a more expensive yet underperforming health care system.

The authors say the central problem is that our economy has not produced enough jobs to decrease unemployment and increase wages.

Bush policies at fault
They call for reversing Bush’s policies on taxes, minimum wages, free trade and national health care. They believe that instead of impeding union organizing, labor laws must allow the labor movement to revive and reverse the generation-long decline of our living standards.

Working people who want more detail, frequent updates and statistics on unemployment, poverty, race, gender and the Bush administration’s attacks on their standard of living should visit the EPI Website, www.epi.org.

The final hard copy edition of “State of Working America” is due in January, but the union library now has advance copies.

In this election year, the EPI is asking the hard questions about the future of workers in this country that any credible candidate should address.

— Ken Nash
DC 37 Education Fund Library,
Room 211