Open AccessDisparate Recoveries: Wealth, Race, and the Working Class after the Great Recession
Author(s) -
Fenaba R. Addo,
William Darity
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the annals of the american academy of political and social science/the annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1552-3349
pISSN - 0002-7162
DOI - 10.1177/00027162211028822
Subject(s) - working class , demographic economics , recession , middle class , race (biology) , inequality , white (mutation) , educational attainment , net worth , social class , economics , labour economics , demography , sociology , political science , economic growth , gender studies , mathematics , politics , finance , market economy , mathematical analysis , debt , biochemistry , chemistry , keynesian economics , law , gene
What does it mean to be working class in a society of extreme racial wealth inequality? Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, we investigate the wealth holdings of Black, Latinx, and white working-class households during the post–Great Recession (pre–COVID-19) period that spanned 2010 to 2019. We then explore the relationship between working-class and middle-class attainment using a wealth-based metric. We find that, in terms of their net worth, fewer Black working-class households benefitted from the economic recovery than white working-class households. Among white households, the working class saw the greatest increase in wealth in both absolute and relative terms. Working-class households were less likely to be middle class as defined by their wealth holdings, and Black and Latinx households were also less likely to be middle class. For Black households, racial identity is a stronger predictor of wealth attainment than occupational sector.