The Wage Standard What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It

“The go-to guy on minimum wage” (Nobel Laureate and New York Times bestselling author Paul Krugman) tackles one of the thorniest social issues of our times—income inequality—from a new vantage point with field-leading economics.

How did the labor market stop working for so many in the workforce? Why did wages at the bottom and in the middle of the pay scale fail to keep up with a growing economy that delivered over 70 percent productivity gains and soaring incomes for those at the top? What caused this divergence, and what can we do about it now? The Wage Standard is a deep dive into these very questions—questions Arin Dube has explored in over two decades of influential research.

Painting a new picture with data, Dube shows us how wages for most workers became painfully frozen. But also, he argues, this fate was not inevitable, and more importantly, that it can be reversed. The Wage Standard lays bare how the labor market really works, revealing levers to pull to shift course: to reshape corporate decisions, rethink policy priorities, and rebalance economic power and social norms to better protect the typical worker. These are the keys to unlocking broad-based prosperity.

Dube delivers a hopeful message. First, chances are, you deserve a raise. And second, it’s not necessary to fix the broken politics of Washington, DC, in order to get one. Political will, public engagement, and persistence can set a new standard to reset the labor market and improve the lives of American workers starting today. In fact, signs of progress are already offering a glimpse of what a fairer economy can and will look like.

ARINDRAJIT (ARIN) DUBE is Provost Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and research fellow at the Institute for Labor in Germany. He has testified before Congress, consulted with the UK government, provided counsel to many state legislatures, and is invited to speak about his research around the world. Dube publishes consistently in top economics journals, such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, and American Economic Journal. He has written opinion pieces for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and has been interviewed extensively on radio and television programs, including NPR, MSNBC, CNBC, and Bloomberg TV.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1
A Raise Deferred

CHAPTER 2
Monopsony!

CHAPTER 3
Tales of Market Tightness

CHAPTER 4
The Treaty of Detroit

CHAPTER 5
Corporate Pay Strategies

CHAPTER 6
The Minimal Cost of Higher Minimums

CHAPTER 7
More Than the Minimum

CHAPTER 8
The Politics of Possibility

Appendix A: Econ-Speak and Other Jargon, Decoded

Appendix B: Five Equations That Explain How Wages Are Set