IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v695y2021i1p70-91.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Recent Trends in the Material Well-Being of the Working Class in America

Author

Listed:
  • James P. Ziliak

Abstract

I examine trends in the material well-being of working-class households using data from the Current Population Survey in the two decades surrounding the Great Recession. In the years leading up to the Great Recession, average earnings, homeownership, and insurance coverage all fell, and absolute poverty and food insecurity accelerated. After-tax incomes were, for the most part, stagnant. The economic hemorrhaging either abated or reversed, however, in the decade after the Great Recession, especially for the least skilled and for households headed by a Hispanic person. This includes robust earnings growth, which led to declines in earnings inequality, absolute poverty, and food insecurity, coupled with increased insurance coverage and a modest rebound in after-tax incomes. As many of these recent advances likely stalled with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I discuss various policy options.

Suggested Citation

  • James P. Ziliak, 2021. "Recent Trends in the Material Well-Being of the Working Class in America," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 695(1), pages 70-91, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:695:y:2021:i:1:p:70-91
    DOI: 10.1177/00027162211021365
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027162211021365
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00027162211021365?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:695:y:2021:i:1:p:70-91. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.