The financial crisis spurred many policymakers around the world to meet challenges with bold, creative, non-partisan solutions. As the crisis and recession recede, policymakers must refocus on persistent structural challenges. Top of the list in the US – and elsewhere – is income inequality.

US data remain sobering. Recent figures from the Internal Revenue Service show that in 2007 the top-percentile income share reached 23.5 per cent, continuing a 30-year increase. And, in some ways even more troubling, US inequality is widening largely because of falling real incomes for all but the most-skilled highest earners. Between 2000 and 2008, only workers with a professional postgraduate degree – 2 per cent of the labour force – enjoyed increases in mean real money income. All other educational cohorts, including college graduates and those with PhDs, suffered falls. The recession is putting further pressure on many workers : year-to-date, average weekly earnings for production and non-supervisory workers have fallen 1.5 per cent.