Despite a growing economy that has delivered on high productivity and incomes for those at the very top, wages for the vast majority of workers have been suppressed for far too long. But this outcome was not inevitable. Income inequality is the result of a labor market reshaped by the growing power of corporations and weakened worker protections. Workers have paid in the form of stagnant wages. How do we move forward?
For our August book talk, we welcomed economist Arindrajit Dube to talk about his new book The Wage Standard. Equipped with over two decades of research, Dube paints a new picture of how this labor market came to be and how political will, public engagement, and persistence can rebalance economic power toward workers and finally deliver the raises they deserve.