From “Good Jobs, Strong Families In Working-Class America” by Grant Martsolf at ifstudies.org: “The last 50 years have been difficult for many working-class Americans. Beginning in the late 1970s, the U.S. economy entered a period of rapid deindustrialization, leading to a significant decline in manufacturing jobs—jobs that had long provided reliable, well-paying employment for Americans without a college degree (a common definition of the “working class”), especially men. Economic prospects for this group have suffered considerably. Between 1979 and 2019, real wages for workers without a college degree declined by 11%, while wages for the median college graduate increased by 15 percent…The challenges facing working-class Americans extend beyond economics. They have also seen a broad erosion of key social institutions traditionally associated with a flourishing life. One institution arguably hit hardest is the family…In a new IFS/PRRUCS report, Brad Wilcox and I show that, in 1980, working-class men ages 25–54 were actually four percentage points more likely than college-educated men to be married with children at home. However, that changed rapidly over the following decades. While all men experienced significant declines in marriage and family formation, working-class men were hit especially hard. By 2021, only 34% of working-class men were married with children at home, compared to 44% of college-educated men…There are certainly many factors driving these trends, but the worsening economic prospects of working-class men are clearly among the most important. We know that marriage and work are closely linked. For example, women are more likely to be attracted to potential partners that can reasonably provide for a family—men with well-paying, stable jobs that offer benefits. Likewise, men with families are more likely to work and to pursue stable, higher-quality employment.” Read more here.
For a peek at what political leaders can do at the state level to help working-class families and gain support from them, check out “New Blue Collar Caucus Aims to Support Connecticut’s Working Class” by Karla Ciaglo at ctnewsjunkie.com. An excerpt: “HARTFORD, CT — A new coalition of legislators made its debut earlier this week as the 30-member Blue Collar Caucus held its first press conference to lay out an agenda…State representatives Kara Rochelle, D-Ansonia, and Rebecca Martinez, D-Plainville, the caucus co-chairs, outlined the group’s priorities: expanding job training, enforcing wage laws, ensuring access to affordable healthcare, protecting labor rights, advancing tax policies that prioritize the middle class, and taking legislative action to confront corporate greed…Martinez pointed to the economic hardship in her own district, where nearly one-third of households fall below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) threshold…“No one should have to choose between rent, medicine, safety, and survival,” Martinez said. “I am committed to affordability, education, collective bargaining, and senior dignity. It’s time we put our working families first.”…The representatives, joined by labor leaders and community advocates, spotlighted a slate of bills backed by the caucus, including measures to provide healthcare support for paraeducators, combat wage theft, protect residents in manufactured homes and bills expanding child tax benefits…A key focus was Senate Bill 8, An Act Concerning Protections For Workers and Enhancements to Workers’ Rights. That bill would provide unemployment insurance benefits to striking workers…State Rep. Kate Farrar, D-West Hartford, celebrated the inclusion of a new child tax credit in the state’s revenue package — $150 per child, up to three children, with income-based phaseouts — and said she’s optimistic about the caucus’s impact moving forward…“We know that meaningful tax relief isn’t just common sense,” Farrar said. “It also addresses our broken tax code, which for too long has favored the wealthy. This puts dollars in the hands of families who need them most.”
Jake Johnson rolls it out in his Common Dreams article, “The budget blueprint that U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled Friday would give a record $1.01 trillion to the American military for the coming fiscal year while imposing $163 billion in total cuts to housing, education, healthcare, climate, and labor programs…The proposal, released by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, was viewed by Democratic lawmakers and other critics as a clear statement of the White House’s intent to gut programs that working class Americans rely on while pursuing another round of tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and bolstering the Pentagon, a morass of waste and abuse…”President Trump has made his priorities clear as day,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “He wants to outright defund programs that help working Americans while he shovels massive tax breaks at billionaires like himself and raises taxes on middle-class Americans with his reckless tariffs…This president believes we should shred at least $163 billion in investments here at home that make all the difference for families and have been essential to America’s success—but that we should hand billionaires and the biggest corporations trillions in new tax breaks,” Murray added. “That is outrageous—and it should offend every hardworking American who wants their tax dollars to help them live a good life, not pad the pockets of billionaires.”
Gabriel Thompson says it well in “Trump Promised to Fight for Workers — Instead, He’s Undermined Them: 100 days in, the self-styled champion of the working class has delivered layoffs, trade wars and an erosion of worker protections” at Capital and Main. As Thompson explains, “Trump campaigned on fighting for the working class, and exit polls found that he won 56% of the blue-collar vote, defined as voters without a college degree, while making gains among working-class Black and Latino voters. Shortly after the election, Trump nominated Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a pro-union Republican, for labor secretary. On Inauguration Day, Trump promised his administration would “protect American workers.”…The administration has fired tens of thousands of federal workers, stripped a million more of collective bargaining rights, axed higher minimum wage requirements and gutted programs and agencies that enforce labor and safety standards and protect workers’ rights to organize…“This regime of billionaires has launched an all-out assault on working people,” said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which has joined the American Federation of Government Employees in lawsuits to block a number of Trump’s executive orders. “They’ve brought to a halt the very agencies that help workers negotiate strong contracts, investigate unfair labor practices and hold employers accountable.”…Trump has also hollowed out agencies and programs that protect workers from physical harm, harassment and discrimination. In April, cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, which researches workplace hazards, led to a workforce reduction of more than 90%…In early April, J.P. Morgan raised the likelihood of a recession to 60% and has maintained that forecast, even after Trump suspended some tariffs.”
