Jared Bernstein, a Columbia University School of Social Work (PhD’94) alumnus, has been named Executive Director of the newly formed White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families chaired by Vice President Joe Biden.
Charged with studying ways to raise living standards for middle class Americans, the task force will work with federal agencies that have responsibility for key issues facing the middle class to expedite administrative reforms, propose executive orders, and develop legislative and policy proposals that can be of special importance to working families.
Dr. Bernstein currently serves as the Chief Economist and Economic Policy Adviser for Vice President Biden. Prior to this, Dr. Bernstein was the Director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute. From 1995-1996, he served as Deputy Chief Economist for the Department of Labor under Secretary Robert Reich. Dr. Bernstein’s research has been on income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, low-wage labor markets and poverty, international comparisons, and the analysis of federal and state economic policies. He is the acclaimed author of Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries) and All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy.
For more information about the task force, please visit www.AStrongMiddleClass.gov.