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- Derek Weston via Fortune | FORTUNE
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Working-class Americans hold only 1% of elected offices, study finds
ReWorking-class Americans hold only 1% of elected offices, study finds
A new study reveals that despite political rhetoric, only about 1% of U.S. state legislators and members of Congress come from working-class jobs, a trend mirrored globally. The research identifies the personal burdens of campaigning and gatekeeping by parties as key barriers, and proposes reforms to increase working-class representation.
Despite frequent claims by both major U.S. political parties to champion the working class, people who spent their careers in manual labor, service, or clerical jobs hold only about 1% of seats in state legislatures and Congress, according to new research. This underrepresentation is not unique to the United States: across 97 democracies studied, an average of just 2% of national legislators come from working-class backgrounds, a disparity that researchers say has tangible policy consequences.
The study, conducted by a team of political scientists, defines working-class jobs as those offering little stability or security, such as construction work, restaurant service, or receptionist roles, excluding small-business owners and positions requiring extensive formal education. The researchers found that while about half of the U.S. labor force holds such jobs, former workers are nearly absent from political institutions. Notable exceptions like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender, or Maine state Sen. Troy Jackson, a former logger, attract media attention but remain outliers.
The scarcity of working-class lawmakers matters because research shows that safety net programs, business regulations, and worker protections tend to be weaker when few former workers hold office. While working-class people can influence policy through other means, their interests often take a back seat in legislative bodies dominated by white-collar professionals.
The study, detailed in the new book “Keeping Workers Off the Ballot,” challenges common explanations for the shortage. Campaign spending and union decline do not fully account for it, as even countries with public campaign financing like Germany and Belgium, or heavily unionized nations like Finland, see working-class representation at or below 5%. Instead, the researchers point to two key factors: the personal burdens of campaigning and the role of party gatekeepers.
Working-class individuals are significantly more likely than equally qualified professionals to cite concerns about taking time off work and being unable to pay bills during a campaign as reasons for not running. Parties and interest groups, aware of these hurdles, often pass over qualified workers in favor of white-collar candidates they believe will have an easier time on the trail, even when party leaders are sympathetic to working-class concerns.
The researchers propose a range of reforms to address the imbalance. Short-term measures include candidate training programs and political scholarships targeting working-class people, such as the New Jersey AFL-CIO’s Labor Candidates School. Longer-term options, though politically challenging, include party or institutional quotas for working-class candidates and randomly selected citizen juries to advise policymakers. Without such efforts, the study concludes, the voices of workers will remain largely absent from the halls of power.
