A Tale of Two Decades: Economists Examine Changes in Work and Family in Massachusetts 1979 - 1999

By Anne-Marie Kent

Are families in Massachusetts better off now than they were in 1979? UMass Boston economists Randy Albelda and Marlene Kim have published a new report that answers this question and, in doing so, raises many others about economic equality. Sponsored by the UMass Donahue Institute and UMass Boston’s Center for Social Policy, Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, and Labor Resource Center, the report examines the gains and challenges families experienced as the state’s economic base changed from "old-style" manufacturing to the "new" economy.

Albelda and Kim report that a larger 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 saw their earnings improve over twenty years, they also found themselves working much longer hours. More people – especially mothers – are now working in every family. Also, despite gains in earnings, workers have experienced a steady decline in employer-sponsored benefits. Some types of workers, such as blacks, Hispanics, 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 have increased their work time, through longer hours and more weeks worked during the year. 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.

Albelda and Kim also report 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. According to the report, 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, earnings growth remained 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 and 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 that 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.

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