State of Working America, 2008/2009

The State of Working America, prepared biennially since 1988 by the Economic Policy Institute, includes a wide variety of data on family incomes, wages, taxes, unemployment, wealth, and poverty-data that enable the authors to closely examine the effect of the economy on the living standards of the American people. This edition, like the previous ones, exposes and analyzes the most recent and critical trends in the country.Praise for previous editions of The State of Working America: "The State of Working America remains unrivaled as the most-trusted source for a comprehensive understanding of how working Americans and their families are faring in today's economy."—Robert B. Reich"It is the inequality of wealth, argue the authors, rather than new technology (as some would have it), that is responsible for the failure of America's workplace to keep pace with the country's economic growth. The State of Working America is a well-written, soundly argued, and important reference book."—Library Journal "If you want to know what happened to the economic well-being of the average American in the past decade or so, this is the book for you. It should be required reading for Americans of all political persuasions."—Richard Freeman, Harvard University "A truly comprehensive and useful book that provides a reality check on loose statements about U.S. labor markets. It should be cheered by all Americans who earn their living from work."—William Wolman, former chief economist, CNBC's Business Week "The State of Working America provides very valuable factual and analytic material on the economic conditions of American workers. It is the very best source of information on this important subject."—Ray Marshall, University of Texas, former U.S. Secretary of Labor"An indispensable work... on family income, wages, taxes, employment, and the distribution of wealth."—Simon Head, New York Review of Books"No matter what political camp you're in, this is the single most valuable book I know of about the state of America, period. It is the most referenced, most influential resource book of its kind."—Jeff Madrick, author of The End of Affluence "This book is the single best yardstick for measuring whether or not our economic policies are doing enough to ensure that our economy can, once again, grow for everybody."—Richard A. Gephardt"The best place to review the latest developments in changes in the distribution of income and wealth."—Lester Thurow

Lawrence Mishel is the president of the Economic Policy Institute and was the research director from 1987 to 1999. He is the coauthor of the previous versions of The State of Working America and of The Myth of the Coming Labor Shortage and coeditor of Unions and Economic Competitiveness. Jared Bernstein is the director of the Living Standards Program and senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. He is the author of Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? and coauthor of seven previous editions of The State of Working America. Heidi Shierholz is an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.