期刊名称：RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
印刷版ISSN：2377-8253
电子版ISSN：2377-8261
出版年度：2022
卷号：8
期号：5
页码：1-22
DOI：10.7758/RSF.2022.8.5.01
语种：English
出版社：Russell Sage Foundation
摘要：The twenty-first century has seen major changes in both the nature of work and the nature of families in the United States-even before the COVID-19 pandemic upended nearly every aspect of economic and social life beginning in the spring of 2020. Many ongoing,longer-term changes in work and family life have occurred gradually over the past half century or more; some have occurred after shorterterm disruptions to society and the labor market. Technology has rapidly evolved, opening new industries and opportunities in the economy; other job sectors have calcified and faded in prominence; some jobs now require much less human labor as technology has become more sophisticated. Professional jobs-those that require a college degree or higher-have become increasingly well compensated even as the wages of so-called unskilled jobs have remained flat or even declined and the federal minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation. As a result, overall economic inequality has notably increased (whether measured by earnings, income, or wealth), and many lowerincome families today experience poverty and economic hardship. Many observers posit that the United States’ public policies have failed to keep up with social and economic changes—or have done so unevenly across localities, with particularly deleterious consequences for the most disadvantaged individuals and families. At the time of this writing, the policy landscape that low-income families in the United States face is undergoing rapid and potentially dramatic change. It is therefore a critical moment to grapple with how policy could best help lowincome families navigate the new realities of work and family life amid economic uncertainty.
