Life-course Income Curves in the Era of Middle Class Retrenchment, 1970-2011: Structural vs. Existential Income Stagnation

• In Event: 255 - Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Paper Session. Field Advantage: What Aspects of Inequality are Sociologists Comparatively Better Equipped to Tackle?

Abstract

Since at least 1980, the United States has experienced both increasing top-heavy inequality and stagnation of middle class incomes. Concern over rising inequality and middle class income stagnation have recently penetrated the public discourse in the United States and have been a concern of academic researchers for some time. A common theme of commentary on U.S. middle class income stagnation is that it is fueling social dissatisfaction that has been expressed by social movements and at the ballot boxes. But the lived experience of individuals' earnings changes are not necessarily tied to the national income distribution. That is, while the overall U.S. median income may stagnate, individuals move dynamically up and down over time within the national income distribution. I therefore distinguish between structural middle class income stagnation in the U.S. as a whole and existential income stagnation, which corresponds to individual's experience over the life-course. This article investigates whether or not existential income stagnation has been taking hold in the U.S. by analyzing several cohorts of earners in the PSID and (synthetic cohorts in) the CPS. I find no evidence of increasing existential income stagnation. Finally, the implications of this finding are discussed.

Author

• Edo Navot, Columbia University