The Squeezed Middle: The Pressure on Ordinary Workers in America and BritainParker, Sophia As wages stagnate but living costs keep rising, the pressure on working people grows more intense. The issue of living standards has become one of the most urgent challenges for politicians in both Britain and America. 'The squeezed middle' brings together experts from both sides of the Atlantic to ask what the UK can learn from the US. American workers have not benefited from growth for an entire generation - the average American worker earned no more in 2009 than in 1975. Now British workers are undergoing a similar experience. No longer can they assume that when the economy grows their wages will grow with it. This collection brings together for the first time leading economic and policy thinkers to analyse the impact of different policies on those on low-to middle incomes and to explain what lessons the UK can learn from America's 'lost generation'. This timely book is essential reading for everyone concerned about the living standards crisis, an issue which could decide elections as well as shaping the future for millions of working families. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Setting the scenea rising tide no longer lifts all boats | 15 |
A lost decade not a burst bubble the declining living standards of middleclass households in the US and Britain | 17 |
Rising incomes and modest inequality the highemployment route | 31 |
Policy lessonscreating quality work raisingincomes and building greatereconomic security | 45 |
Improving job quality in lowpaid jobs care workers in the US | 49 |
Employment change and economic vulnerability in the US | 61 |
New evidence and new directions for promoting labour market advancement for low and modest earners | 75 |
Strategies to expand the affordable private rental stock | 105 |
Insulating middleincome households from economic insecurity why savings matter and how we can increase them | 117 |
Looking ahead a cautionary tale | 129 |
The path to postrecession prosperity | 131 |
How US politics is undermining the American Dream and what it means for the UK | 143 |
Conclusion learning the lessons | 155 |
| 165 | |
Boosting the pay packets of low to middleincome families | 87 |
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affordable housing American analysis Available benefits boosting Budget Center certified nursing assistants challenges chapter child 34 Child Trust Fund childcare children 40 decade Earned Income Tax Economic Policy Institute economic risk economic security effects EITC employers employment rate Employment Retention eurozone evidence families federal funding government’s growth hourly household income impact improve incentives income distribution income tax Income Tax Credit increase inequality infrastructure investment Jacob Hacker job quality Kenworthy labour market living standards low earners low-income low-wage MDRC median middle-class middle-income households million minimum wage Mishel National non-standard employment OECD organisations participants pension percentile political poverty prize-linked savings productivity programmes recent redistribution reforms REITs rental Research Resolution Foundation Retention and Advancement rising sector Shierholz shows social policy spending strategies Tax increment financing tax revenues UK’s vulnerable weekly earnings welfare women workers workforce