What should you be making?

Chuck Sheketoff

In honor of Labor Day, our colleagues at the Economic Policy Institute made a little tool — based on their project inequality.is — that shows how much you would be making if wages had kept pace with productivity, a key indicator of an economy working for all.

As they explain,

Economic inequality is a real and growing problem in America. Since 1979, workers are working more, making more goods, and not reaping the rewards of their increased productivity. Instead, CEOs and executives — the top 1% of earners — now take home 20% of the nation’s income.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. Growing inequality isn’t an inevitability — it was created. It’s the result of intentional policy decisions on taxes, trade, labor, and financial regulation. But that’s the good news: if inequality is not inevitable, then it can be fixed.

Take a look — click the image and then put your income into the box and learn what you should be making.

Share this with your friends.

And remember that American workers should be earning more. Visit inequality.is. And to learn more about inequality in Oregon visit The State of Working Oregon .

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Chuck Sheketoff is the executive director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy. You can sign up to receive email notification of OCPP materials at www.ocpp.org.

By Chuck Sheketoff Aug. 30, 2013 Posted in open discussion.