AGENCY/PHOTOGRAPHER

Recommendations

Info

Jobs and wages • Use fiscal policy to support growth, for example by investing in infrastructure. An investment in infrastructure would generate jobs in the short run while raising productivity in the long run. Policymakers should make a $500 billion investment in infrastructure over the next 10 years while adopting measures to ensure that infrastructure investments deliver the highest economic, environmental, and social returns. • Promote business investment by orienting corporate incentives towards the long-term. Aligning the incentives of the corporate sector could foster a longterm approach that boosts productive investments, which drives economic growth and helps workers and firms both get ahead. • Make employment more resilient. Policies that make it easier for workers to reenter the workforce would raise demand in the short term while increasing productivity in the long term. Temporary national service positions during periods of high unemployment, a national subsidized jobs program, reform to unemployment insurance, and a jobseeker’s allowance would all help the unemployed remain in or reenter the labor market. • Ensure monetary policy targets full employment. Full employment promotes higher wages and quality jobs for Americans. Given persistently low inflation, monetary policy should be targeted at generating a high-pressure economy with robust wage and employment growth. • Protect wage growth by preventing financial crises. Financial crises and their aftermaths can devastate middle-class wages and wealth. The reforms enacted after the 2008 financial crisis and recession, including the Dodd-Frank Act, must be maintained. Policymakers should take additional steps to mitigate emerging systemic risks. • Restore worker bargaining power. Unions are one of the most important vehicles for raising middle-class wages. Worker bargaining power should be restored by changing labor market rules to encourage industry-wide collective bargaining. • Deploy profit-sharing. Broad-based profit-sharing plans can raise middle-class incomes by enabling workers to share in the benefits of productivity growth. 16 Center for American Progress | Raising Wages and Rebuilding Wealth
• Address the labor market effects of globalization. Trade policy should promote greater automaticity in enforcement and higher standards for labor and the environment, among other changes to level the playing field. • Rebuild labor standards. Government should provide a baseline set of employment standards for all working Americans. This means raising the minimum wage and enacting protections against job-scheduling volatility. • Reinvigorate competition policy. The active enforcement of antitrust policy would ensure that business profits are shared more widely by, for example, reducing the growth in consumer prices, enabling workers to compete for higher wages, and providing more opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses to grow. • Support consumer financial protections. Consumer financial protections prevent unfair reductions in take-home earnings and level the playing field for high-road companies that do the right thing. • Enact family-friendly policies to protect human capital. Workers who take extended absences from the labor market to take care of children or an elderly parent suffer lifelong earnings losses. Family-friendly policies such as paid family and medical leave and paid sick days—as well as the child care and early education policies spelled out below—would raise both labor force participation and wages. • Raise wages by expanding opportunity. A suite of policies should be deployed to help maximize the value of American workers and their incomes, including investing in workforce training, expanding and diversifying entrepreneurship, and eliminating unfair barriers to formal employment. • Use tax policy to promote fairness. The U.S. tax code, while progressive, would benefit from changes that support middle- and low-income Americans while ensuring that financial gains are taxed fairly. The federal government should collect enough revenue to fully fund much-needed public investments. Introduction and summary | www.americanprogress.org 17
Page 1: AGENCY/PHOTOGRAPHER Raising Wages a
Page 5 and 6: Contents 1 Introduction and summary
Page 7 and 8: CHAPTER 1 Introduction and summary
Page 9 and 10: Nevertheless, public policy can and
Page 11 and 12: of growth came to an end. Middle-cl
Page 13 and 14: The main reason middle-class income
Page 15 and 16: The above analysis of incomes focus
Page 17 and 18: TABLE 1.2 Wealth across demographic
Page 19 and 20: FIGURE 1.6 The cost of education, h
Page 21: Policy response and recommendations
Page 25 and 26: Health care • Address cost shifti
Page 27 and 28: Endnotes 1 Authors’ analysis of M
Page 29 and 30: Introduction and summary | www.amer
Page 31 and 32: CHAPTER 2 Jobs and Wages By Michael
Page 33 and 34: One of the most striking aspects of
Page 35 and 36: In sum, these five factors leave ma
Page 37 and 38: ments to open production sites in l
Page 39 and 40: The deterioration of other regulato
Page 41 and 42: ate returned to its 2001 level. The
Page 43 and 44: This speaks to a larger challenge t
Page 45 and 46: Underinvestment produces chronic ro
Page 47 and 48: sidized jobs program that would hel
Page 49 and 50: Restore worker bargaining power We
Page 51 and 52: Rebuild labor standards and the bro
Page 53 and 54: Additional steps should also be tak
Page 55 and 56: Policymakers should work with stake
Page 57 and 58: At the same time, we can take actio
Page 59 and 60: Endnotes 1 Authors’ analysis of C
Page 61 and 62: 52 Charles Whalen and Felix Reichli
Page 63 and 64: 96 Julia Gordon, “Inequality, Opp
Page 65 and 66: prehensive immigration reform. Pass
Page 67 and 68: An Immigration Policy that Works fo
Page 69 and 70: CHAPTER 3 Early Childhood By Katie
Page 71 and 72: Due to these high costs, parents ar
Page 73 and 74:
information available to parents. 2
Page 75 and 76:
Policy recommendations Two new poli
Page 77 and 78:
Endnotes 1 Annie E. Casey Foundatio
Page 79 and 80:
Early Childhood | www.americanprogr
Page 81 and 82:
CHAPTER 4 Higher Education By Ben M
Page 83 and 84:
FIGURE 4.1 Average tuition and requ
Page 85 and 86:
FIGURE 4.3 Net price of public four
Page 87 and 88:
Policy recommendations Increasing h
Page 89 and 90:
Endnotes 1 Bureau of Labor Statisti
Page 91 and 92:
for the same home. 9 Furthermore, t
Page 93 and 94:
LGBT People Face Significant Barrie
Page 95 and 96:
CHAPTER 5 Health Care By Maura Cals
Page 97 and 98:
Health care benefits are part of a
Page 99 and 100:
When combined, these trends meant t
Page 101 and 102:
Policy recommendations The ACA made
Page 103 and 104:
The notice should outline how much
Page 105 and 106:
Require drug companies to justify p
Page 107 and 108:
Endnotes 1 Mark W. Stanton, “Empl
Page 109 and 110:
Health Care | www.americanprogress.
Page 111 and 112:
Workers with disabilities are also
Page 113 and 114:
with disabilities, child care provi
Page 115 and 116:
23 Faye Ong, ed., Inclusion Works!
Page 117 and 118:
CHAPTER 6 Housing By Sarah Edelman
Page 119 and 120:
FIGURE 6.1 Homeownership rate 75% 7
Page 121 and 122:
middle-class households: The share
Page 123 and 124:
Homebuyers in the coming decade may
Page 125 and 126:
Support and expand low down payment
Page 127 and 128:
Changes such as these have faced pu
Page 129 and 130:
for lots and rules against construc
Page 131 and 132:
20 Ibid. 21 Joint Center for Housin
Page 133 and 134:
63 CAP published a report in Decemb
Page 135 and 136:
African American and Latino workers
Page 137 and 138:
Endnotes 1 Due to a lack of disaggr
Page 139 and 140:
CHAPTER 7 Retirement By David Madla
Page 141 and 142:
FIGURE 7.1 Households are not build
Page 143 and 144:
FIGURE 7.3 Middle class households
Page 145 and 146:
The federal government plays a larg
Page 147 and 148:
Modernize survivorship and divorce
Page 149 and 150:
Fully implement the conflict of int
Page 151 and 152:
27 Christian E. Weller and David Ma
Page 153 and 154:
Retirement | www.americanprogress.o
Page 155 and 156:
CHAPTER 8 Conclusion By Brendan Duk
Page 157 and 158:
The country will elect a new presid
Page 159 and 160:
Conclusion | www.americanprogress.o
Page 161 and 162:
Thomas Huelskoetter is the Research
Page 163 and 164:
Acknowledgements The authors would
show all

AGENCY/PHOTOGRAPHER

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?