As part of its Commission on Living Standards, Resolution Foundation held this seminal event which brought together leading US and UK economists to discuss what Britain can learn from the declining fortunes of the American middle class. For a generation the wages of ordinary working Americans have barely risen. Middle skilled jobs have been in decline and the link between economic growth and gains for ordinary working people has broken down. Patterns emerging in Britain from before the recession are of serious concern: despite strong economic growth, median wage growth was flat between 2003 to 2008 and those on low to middle incomes have seen their share of national income decline sharply. This event asked what we can learn from the American experience and what action we can take to restore the link between growth and gain for working people in the UK
