America’s Working Poor in the Aftermath of the Great Recession: Conceptualization, Measurement, and New Estimates

• In Event: 397 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Shifting Labor Conditions in the Wake of the Great Recession

Abstract

The “Great Recession” and its aftermath have refocused attention on high unemployment and chronic poverty in the U.S. Our paper places the spotlight on America’s “working poor,” which has replaced the “welfare poor” as a focal point for policy intervention following the implementation of work-based welfare reform in the late 1990s. We highlight a number of serious conceptual and measurement challenges that have contributed to the small and inchoate social science literature on the working poor. First, we review alternative measurement schemes used in past research, and then discuss the conceptual assumptions that underlie each. Second, based on previous literature, we use up-to-date data from the March Current Population Survey to estimate and evaluate over 80 alternative measures that produce different national and race-specific estimates of working poverty. Third, using a factor analytic measurement approach, we evaluate the degree to which each alternative measure of the working poor is associated with the “true” or latent construct of working poverty. Finally, we create a working poverty index, and estimate the association between this indicator of working poverty and a set of conventional social and demographic predictors (e.g., race, education, age) in a series of multivariate regression models. The overall goal is to provide new substantive insights and a conceptual and empirical baseline for future research on the working poor.

Authors

• Brian Thiede, Cornell University

• Daniel T. Lichter, Cornell University