This working paper argues that pension funds should adopt a funding principle that is consistent with a return on holdings conditional on the state of the stock market. As will be shown, the expected “conditional rate of return” used in making this assessment will vary depending on the...

The Great Recession has been hard on recent college graduates, but it has been even harder for black recent college graduates. This report examines the labor-market outcomes of black recent college graduates using the general approach developed by Federal Reserve Bank of New York researchers...

This report uses national data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to show that unionization raises the wages of the typical woman worker by 11.2 percent compared to their non-union peers. The study goes on to show that unionization also increases the likelihood that a woman worker will...

This report uses national data from 2004 to 2007 to show that unionization raises the wages of the typical Latino worker by 17.6 percent compared to their non-union peers. The study goes on to show that unionization also increases the likelihood that a Latino worker will have health insurance...

This report uses national data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to show that unionization raises the wages of the typical service sector worker by 10.1 percent compared to their non-union peers. The study goes on to show that unionization also increases the likelihood that a service...

This report makes a series of adjustments to the most common measure of U.S. productivity growth (i.e., non-farm business sector) as well as to measures of wage growth, to determine the extent to which lagging wages can be blamed on weak productivity growth vs. income redistribution. Weak wage...

This report reviews the characteristics of the immigrant workforce and analyzes the impact of unionization on the pay and benefits of immigrant workers. According to the most recent available data, immigrant workers are now over 15 percent of the workforce and almost 13 percent of unionized...

This study estimates rates of all forms of health insurance coverage for workers aged 18 to 64, by wage quintiles, over the past three decades. This analysis looks at health insurance from any source, while other reports (with rare exceptions) look at only employer-provided health coverage. This...

Asian Pacific American (APA) workers are, with Latinos, the fastest growing group in the U.S. workforce and in organized labor. Since the late 1980s, APA workers have seen their representation in the ranks of U.S. unions almost double, from about 2.5 percent of all union workers in 1989 to about...

Employment in physically demanding jobs or in jobs with difficult working conditions is a major cause of early labor-market exit among older workers. Raising the retirement age is particularly concerning for near-retirement age workers with such jobs. Despite the fact that the retirement age...