Chutes and Ladders

Navigating the Low-Wage Labor Market

Katherine S. Newman

    Acknowledgments

    Prologue

    1. Lives, in the Long Run

    Part I. Chutes and Ladders

    2. The Best-Case Scenario
    Katherine S. Newman and Chauncy Lennon 3. High Flyers, Low Riders, and the "Up but Not Out" Club

    4. All in the Family

    5. The National Picture
    Helen Connolly, Peter Gottschalk, and Katherine S. Newman

    Part II. The Inside View

    6. Streetwise Economics
    Victor Tan Chen and Katherine S. Newman

    7. "This Is the Kind of Life I Want": Work and Welfare in the Boom Years

    8. Dreams, Deferred: Aspirations and Obstacles in Work and Family Life

    9. Opening the Gates

    Appendix A. Study Design

    Appendix B. Sample Definitions

    Appendix C. Occupational Prestige Scores and the Socioeconomic Index

    Appendix D. SIPP Analysis of Wage and Status Change

    Notes

    Index

  • Cover: Chutes and Ladders
  • A photo of the author

Photo by Denise Applewhite

Katherine S. Newman is the Malcolm Forbes Class of 1941 Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University, and the author of many prize-winning books on work and class in America.