Reform labour laws to tackle inequality in America, urges Celine McNicholas
The policy expert points out that almost half of workers say they would join a union if given the opportunity
Inequality has grown rapidly in America’s economy over the past five decades. Wage growth has been uneven and has failed to keep pace with productivity, even as those at the top captured a greater share of income. The result? Measured by the Gini coefficient, inequality in America reached its highest ever in 2019, according to the US Census Bureau. (On this scale 1 represents total income inequality and 0 represents total equality.) In 1967, when the bureau started studying income inequality, the Gini coefficient was 0.397 before tax. By 2019 it had climbed to 0.489. No European country had a score greater than 0.38 that year.
This article appeared in the By Invitation section of the print edition under the headline “Reform labour laws to tackle inequality in America, urges Celine McNicholas”
From the July 23rd 2022 edition
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