A Tale of Two Decades: UMass Boston Study Examines Changes in Work and Family in Massachusetts 1979 - 1999

(Boston, MA) Are families in Massachusetts better off now than they were in 1979? A study by UMass Boston economists Randy Albelda and Marlene Kim examines the gains and challenges families have experienced as the state's economic base changed from "old-style" manufacturing to the "new" economy. The report was sponsored by UMass Donahue Institute and UMass Boston's Center for Social Policy, Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, and Labor Resource Center.

Albelda and Kim find that a greater number and more diverse group of families and individuals experienced gains during the "Massachusetts Miracle" of the 1980s than in the "new economy" of the 1990s. While many workers have seen their earnings improve over twenty years, they also have been working much longer hours. More people - especially mothers - are working in every family. Also, despite gains in earnings, workers have experienced a steady decline in employer-sponsored benefits since 1979. Some types of workers, such as Black, Hispanic, and workers without high school degrees, ended the 1990s earning less than they did twenty years previously, despite two economic booms.

By necessity or choice, families are increasing their work time, through longer working hours and more weeks worked during the year. Family employment rates are especially high; with the exception of lone-mother families, there was at least one adult employed in 85 percent or more of all other families. The number of mothers who are working - especially mothers with young children - has risen the fastest in the 1990s and a majority of married mothers now work 35 or more hours a week. This rose from 46 percent of all married mothers in the 1970s to 59 percent in the late 1990s.

UMass Boston researchers also find a growing disparity in economic and employment gains in Massachusetts by industry, race, and education levels throughout the 1990s. The gap between the top ten percent and bottom ten percent of earners widened sharply. The decline in the state's manufacturing sector and the rise of high-tech and professional services that displaced it is reflected in the occupational distribution of adult workers. For example, jobs associated with manufacturing - skilled, unskilled, and semi-skilled blue-color work - steadily declined over the past 20 years.

Education levels are key factors in employment gains. By 1999, 34.1 percent of all workers had college degrees, compared to 20.7 in the late 1970s. The data by Albelda and Kim reveal that the more education a worker has, the more likely he or she is to have gained higher earnings. While earnings for workers without a high school education fell markedly in the 1990s, those with college degrees and beyond saw steep increases.

Despite an increase in workforce diversity, including a rise in the number of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and female workers, earnings growth remain disparate among different racial groups. While white workers saw an increase in their median annual and hourly earnings in the 1990s, earnings for Black and Hispanic workers fell in the 1990s to lower levels than two decades previously. By the end of the 1990s, Hispanics were earning 9.7 percent less annually than 4.1 percent less hourly than they had earned 20 years earlier. In the 1990s boom, workers who were male, black, Hispanic, under 25, and without a high school degree suffered an earnings decline, as did families at the bottom of the income scale.

Albelda and Kim conclude the past decade has brought more opportunities for work, but offered little earnings improvements, except for those at the top of the earnings scale. As a result, poverty rose and inequality accelerated. For more information on the study or to talk with the authors, please call (617) 287-5300.

Download a PDF file of the study

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