Social Welfare Policy and Services I: Assignment Instructions
Written Assignment: Income Inequality briefing paper
Length about 4-5 double spaced pages (with table or chart inserted)
The purpose of this short written assignment is to
Expose students to rudimentary skills in data analysis (reading a statistical table, employing simple comparison and contrast techniques, recognizing data patterns);
Help them recognize emerging “stories” (i.e. how we characterize – in narrative form – what data is telling us about an important issue) in tables, charts and graphs;
Critically reflect upon the meaning and validity of these stories and…
Give them an opportunity to apply a social justice assessment of the stories embedded witin the data one is examining.
Instructions:
Pick one of the featured tables and or charts below (or go to the Economic Policy Institute website and pick out an economic inequality relevant table, chart or graph that interests you).
Before you start writing your paper…
Look at the title of the table/chart.
What is it about? What or who is the “unit of analysis?” what kind of data is being featured: income, wages, accumulated wealth, something non-monetary?
Carefully examine the data reflected in the table / chart:
Are we looking at a comparison of individuals or groups in a single point in time or are we looking at trend data over more than one, or even many points in time?
Look for patterns in the data; compare and contrast different categories. Look deeply at the chart/ table and ask yourself: what is being compared here? What patterns do I see? What data stands out from the pattern? what SURPRISES am I finding in the data?
Now step back from the chart or table and ask: what is the story? Why do the authors want me to look at this table? Is it telling me something new and important about an important issue? What is it?
Draft a quick outline of your paper and begin writing, being sure to address the following:
Describe the chart / table. Note its title, the categories in the rows and in the columns (or the X and Y axes on a chart or graph),
Describe the type of data you are examining and why it is interesting to you and important for the reader to understand.
Highlight the most important patterns and/or comparisons that stand out to you.
Interpret the table or chart: what “story” emerges from the patterns and/or comparisons? What is the table or chart telling us? What point is it making? Keep in mind, some tables make multiple points. You don’t have to say everything about your selected table or chart; just whatever you think is most salient and interesting.
Option 1: Comparing Incomes among “quintiles” of the income distribution over time. This table shows us a distribution of all family units in the nation, by income. The table presents the distribution as “quintiles” (in other words, it groups families into 1/5th sized slices of the population. That is: the lowest fifth = incomes from the bottom to the 20th percentile, the second fifth = families with incomes from the 20th percentile to the 40th percentile and so on…. Note that the table also includes at the right hand side a breakdown of the top quintile.
Option 2: Looking only at the GAINS in income btw the income groups from 1979 to 2007. So to be clear, it’s not saying that the lowest quintile families are only making $1800 a year. It’s saying their real income only increased by $1800 btw ’79 and 2007. Also note that like the table above, it breaks the population down into quintiles, but gives us a breakout of the top quintile.
Option 3: This table allows you to do comparisons of income by race at different points in time btw 1947 and 2009.
Median family income (2009 dollars) by race/ethnic group, 1947-2009
As a % of white family income
Year
White
Black*
Hispanic**
Black
Hispanic
1947
$26,519
$13,558
n.a.
51.1%
n.a.
1967
46,234
27,373
n.a.
59.2%
n.a.
1973
54,348
31,366
37,606
57.7%
69.2%
1979
56,279
31,869
39,014
56.6%
69.3%
1989
60,085
33,753
39,160
56.2%
65.2%
1995
59,598
36,293
34,337
60.9%
57.6%
2000
66,050
41,945
42,899
63.5%
64.9%
2007
66,649
41,527
41,965
62.3%
63.0%
2009
62,545
38,409
39,730
61.4%
63.5%
Income Growth (% growth) over different time periods
1947-73
105%
131%
n.a.
1973-2009
15%
22%
6%
1973-89
11%
8%
4%
1989-2000
10%
24%
10%
2000-09
-5%
-8%
-7%
Option 4: Examine differences in income by Family Type: Note this table allows you to compare a whole bunch of stuff. There are many “stories” here. Note the bottom half of the table reports the relative size of each family type over time. The term “share of families” tells us what percentage of ALL families is represented by each family TYPE.
OPTION FIVE:
You can also go to the Economic Policy Institute Website called “The State of Working America” and peruse any of the tables there to do your analysis.
http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/
Check out the “charts and tables” drop-down tab and the “Trends” drop down tab. Look particularly under the topic headings of “income and poverty”
But the whole website is a rich treasure trove of data on a wide variety of economic and racial justice issues.