On December 3rd, I attended a seminar focused on the wage gap in the United States, and what policies and events led us here.
The speaker of the seminar was Dr. Josh Bivens, the Director of Research at the Economic Policy Institute. The seminar was moderated by Dr. Daniele Tavani from the Department of Economics at Colorado State University.
Dr. Bivens goes over the paper “Identifying the Policy Levers Generating Wage Suppression and Wage Inequality” he wrote with Lawerence Mishel. They wanted to contribute to the debate on source of wage inequality and its rise.
In the seminar he had three main points:
- The roots of the rise are from the labor market
- The rise of inequality explained by competitive models
- Estimated impacts of discrete policy changes
Throughout the hour long seminar he touched on gap of productivity and typical worker compensation, the difference in wage distribution, and the decline of unions.
The seminar overall was very thought provoking as he went over how drastic the wage gap has grown over the last 40 years.
This seminar taught me the importance of economic intelligence and to really notice how these gaps affect people today, and how the gap can be decreased despite reluctant opinion.