This shift came about for a number of reasons. The sociologist Jake Rosenfeld’s research documents how the decline of unionization has, among other things, exacerbated racial wage gaps that had been starting to close as the civil-rights movement removed some legal barriers separating minorities and good jobs. Don Tomaskovic-Devey and Ken-Hou Lin show how the rise of America’s financial sector has worsened economic inequality. At the same time, tight regulation of corporations and policies, such as affirmative action, that are intended to address discrimination have become less popular politically.

These macro-level shifts have had a marked impact on individual workers’ lives. The rise of contract, at-will work leaves many with tenuous job security. Workers in low-wage retail occupations, for instance—one example of the “bad jobs” Kalleberg references—can also find themselves subject to irregular hours and wage theft, making it extremely difficult to support themselves and families in these jobs. The decline of unionization (and the absence of labor protections in many states) contributes to workers’ lack of power relative to previous years.

These developments affect many workers, but they have particularly precarious consequences for women of all races and minority men. The sociologist Joan Acker notes that even as the last few decades have seen an influx of women of all races into the workforce, women remain overrepresented in those “bad” jobs. Christine Williams, Chandra Muller, and Kristine Kilanski’s research on female scientists suggests that even women working “good” jobs are still subjected to discrimination and professional isolation. Nancy Fraser, another academic who questions the fairness of today’s labor markets, laments the type of “lean in” feminism that emphasizes individual advancement and necessitates leaning on other women, particularly those who are minorities or relatively poor.

People of color in particular suffer under this new economy. Since the start of the recession, the unemployment rate among black Americans has often been at least double the unemployment rate of the larger population. Sociologists such as Deirdre Royster have shown that contrary to some popular opinions, this is the case not because black workers are any lazier or less willing to work, but because white workers reserve information and job leads for other white workers and exclude qualified, capable black workers from important social networks.

Moreover, black people are much less likely than white people to be able to draw on liquid assets that can sustain families during economic downturns. Again, in contrast to stereotypes that suggest this is the result of conspicuous consumption or frivolous spending, research by Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro indicates that this is a consequence of a past in which blacks faced nearly insurmountable obstacles to amassing wealth—slavery and segregation, to name two—while whites have been able to build fortunes without such limits and then bequeath them. This is compounded by the fact that today, widespread residential segregation leaves many black homeowners with far fewer assets than their white counterparts.