Income Inequality, Income Mobility, and Economic Policy: U.S. Trends in the 1980s and 1990s
"Income inequality has been increasing in the United States over the past 25
years. Several factors have been identified as possibly contributing to increasing
income inequality. Some researchers have suggested the decline in unionization and
a falling real minimum wage as the primary causes. Others have argued that rising
returns to education and skill-biased technological change are the important factors
explaining rising inequality. Most analysts agree that the likely explanation for rising income inequality is due to skill-biased technological changes combined with a
change in institutions and norms, of which a falling minimum wage and declining
unionization are a part."