To help low-income American households, we have to close the "work gap"

When Franklin Roosevelt delivered his second inaugural address on January 20, 1936 he lamented the “one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.” He challenged Americans to measure their collective progress not by “whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; [but rather] whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” In our new paper, One third of a nation: Strategies for helping working families, we ask a simple question: How are we doing? In brief, we find that:

The gulf in labor market income between the haves and have-nots remains wide. The median income of households in the bottom third in 2014 was $24,000, just a little more than a quarter of the median of $90,000 for the top two-thirds.
The bottom-third households are disproportionately made up of minority adults, adults with limited educational attainment, and single parents.
The most important reason for the low incomes of the bottom third is a “work gap”: the fact that many are not employed at all, or work limited hours.