Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

A recent literature has constructed top income shares time series over the long run for more than 20 countries using income tax statistics. Top incomes represent a small share of the population but a very significant share of total income and total taxes paid. Hence, aggregate economic growth per capita and Gini inequality indexes are sensitive to excluding or including top incomes. We discuss the estimation methods and issues that arise when constructing top income share series, including income definition and comparability over time and across countries, tax avoidance and tax evasion. We provide a summary of the key empirical findings. Most countries experience a dramatic drop in top income shares in the first part of the 20th century in general due to shocks to top capital incomes during the wars and depression shocks. Top income shares do not recover in the immediate post war decades. However, over the last 30 years, top income shares have increased substantially in English speaking countries and in India and China but not in continental European countries or Japan. This increase is due in part to an unprecedented surge in top wage incomes. As a result, wage income comprises a larger fraction of top incomes than in the past. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and empirical models that have been proposed to account for the facts and the main questions that remain open.

Produced by the Labor Occupational Health Program in collaboration with the Watsonville Law Center, this booklet supports community health centers (CHCs), which serve as safety net providers, in creating financially sustainable programs to treat patients with work-related injuries and illnesses.

This booklet will help CHCs meet important mandates for funding under the Affordable Care Act by increasing their capacity to provide patient-centered comprehensive services. A successful workers’ compensation program will expand CHCs’ services in their local communities, ensure injured or ill workers receive treatment and other benefits through workers’ compensation, and encourage many more in the community to obtain both occupational and non-occupational health care services from CHCs.

This report was published by the Work & Health Initiative (WHI). WHI was established to improve the health and wellbeing of California workers and their families and was sponsored by the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH) in northern California. COEH, which is based at the Berkeley, San Francisco, and Davis campuses of the University of California, conducts research, multi-disciplinary graduate-level training, professional continuing education, and community service, including training workshops, conferences, educational materials, clinical services, and assistance with specific problems. The Work & Health Initiative worked in close collaboration with the Labor Occupational Health Program, a community outreach program of COEH.

Written for injured workers seeking advice from legal aid offices, this factsheet discusses the interplay between workers’ compensation benefits and state disability insurance, state unemployment insurance, U.S. Social Security benefits, and Medicare and Medi-Cal benefits.

This report was published by the Work & Health Initiative (WHI). WHI was established to improve the health and wellbeing of California workers and their families and was sponsored by the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH) in northern California. COEH, which is based at the Berkeley, San Francisco, and Davis campuses of the University of California, conducts research, multi-disciplinary graduate-level training, professional continuing education, and community service, including training workshops, conferences, educational materials, clinical services, and assistance with specific problems. The Work & Health Initiative worked in close collaboration with the Labor Occupational Health Program, a community outreach program of COEH.

This qualitative social research project described and documented some of the gaps in legal services available to injured workers. Data were collected through interviews with persons throughout California representing labor organizations, legal aid organizations, and a UC law school clinical program.

This report was published by the Work & Health Initiative (WHI). WHI was established to improve the health and wellbeing of California workers and their families and was sponsored by the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH) in northern California. COEH, which is based at the Berkeley, San Francisco, and Davis campuses of the University of California, conducts research, multi-disciplinary graduate-level training, professional continuing education, and community service, including training workshops, conferences, educational materials, clinical services, and assistance with specific problems. The Work & Health Initiative worked in close collaboration with the Labor Occupational Health Program, a community outreach program of COEH.

This qualitative social research project examined experiences and insights about medical practices, employer policies, and workers' compensation claims programs that can help injured workers return to long-term, sustained employment. Data were collected through focus groups of injured workers, insurance claims administrators, labor union representatives, management representatives, and health care providers.

This report was published by the Work & Health Initiative (WHI). WHI was established to improve the health and wellbeing of California workers and their families and was sponsored by the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH) in northern California. COEH, which is based at the Berkeley, San Francisco, and Davis campuses of the University of California, conducts research, multi-disciplinary graduate-level training, professional continuing education, and community service, including training workshops, conferences, educational materials, clinical services, and assistance with specific problems. The Work & Health Initiative worked in close collaboration with the Labor Occupational Health Program, a community outreach program of COEH.