When COVID-19 swept the world in early 2020 and closed or restricted business activity, researchers and policymakers scrambled to determine the virus’s economic impact on everything from employment, income, and childcare to business closures, commercial property, and work-from-home strategies. Policymakers needed answers fast to plan the most efficacious responses and direct limited resources to benefit those who needed it the most.

One puzzle for researchers in recent decades surrounds two seemingly contradictory facts: The wage gap between Black and White men has remained stubbornly large in recent decades while, over the same period, racial discrimination has steadily declined. This divergence has occurred even as the racial gap in test scores, conditional on education, has also narrowed.

The stagnation of average earnings and rising income inequality in the United States since the 1970s has not only motivated economic research but has also informed discussions about political shifts among various demographics, as well as inspired policy debates about how to address this long-run phenomenon. This is especially true when it comes to the fate of male workers.

Explore just how the US has seen stagnation of average earnings and income inequality rise since the 1970s.

US corporations go to great lengths to avoid paying taxes, and some of those avoidance schemes—like moving profits to offshore tax havens—regularly make headlines. However, there are many more subtle techniques to reduce a corporation’s tax bill, and those methods are often practiced by tax accountants with firm- or industry-specific skills. Employing these tax experts can have beneficial effects and provide competitive advantages for firms.