July 25, 2021

The Black-White Wage Gap: How Inequality and Monopoly Amplify Racial Discrimination

Black men's wages as a percent of White increased rapidly after World War II, only to level off at a bit over 55% after the 1970s. That's a paradox: If racism causes the Black-White wage gap, how come the gap closed dramatically while Jim Crow laws remained in effect, and

Anti-trust, Inequality, Monopoly, Racism, Wages

March 17, 2014

Increasing the Minimum Wage Can Actually Create Jobs–If It’s Enforced

Back when I studied economics, we "proved" in class that a minimum wage causes unemployment. But that proof depends on assuming a perfectly competitive market. Big low-wage employers like Wal-Mart have substantial market power; they can deliberately under-staff operations to force down wages. In that case, a minimum wage increase

Inequality, labor, Minimum wage, Monopoly, monopsony, Wages

February 8, 2014

The Affordable Care Act Will Raise Wages

The new Congressional Budget Office report projects that the Affordable Care Act will lead to a decline in full-time equivalent workers of 2.5 million. This is people voluntarily deciding to work less--like mothers with small children, or workers in poor health or close to retirement. That should mean higher wages

Health policy, Inequality, Wages

April 6, 2013

Is New Technology Destroying Jobs?

On the NewsHour Friday night, in response to the dismal new jobs numbers, Andrew McAfee of the MIT Center for Digital Business blames the loss on “powerful” new labor-saving technology. But if he’s right, is it the technology itself, or the large corporations that install it?

Inequality, labor-saving technology, Monopoly, Reagan Revolution, Wages

February 17, 2013

Raise the Minimum Wage or Cut Low-Wage Taxes?

My son is a low-wage worker, a short-order cook. President Obama just called for an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 an hour. Yet he made no effort to save the “temporary stimulus” 2% payroll tax cut, which expired at the end of 2012. That will