Countering Tech’s Damaging Effect on Jobs

[Commentary] We need to understand the roots of wage stagnation -- and act boldly to counteract them. Advances in information and communications technology are destroying more jobs in advanced economies than the advances are creating. The digital revolution is opening up a great divide between a skilled and wealthy few and the rest of society. What can we do? For the next decade or two, governments will have to act directly to boost take-home pay. Carefully calibrated minimum-wage increases, expanded wage subsidies and work-sharing programs should be regarded as essential parts of the public tool kit. It is not an easy balance to strike, even in well-functioning political systems. Against the backdrop of our polarized, paralyzed national institutions, it will take leadership of exceptional clarity and skill to do what we must do.

[Galston holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution]