Why some experts believe we are in a second Gilded Age

As economic inequality and wealth concentration rise, the U.S. is entering a new era of support for workers’ rights, reminiscent of the Gilded Age. This historical period — which ran from the 1870s and to the early 20th century — saw rapid industrialization and significant wealth disparity, with a small elite growing rich while the working class faced poverty.
Modern labor movements are at the forefront, increasingly challenging income inequality and drawing parallels to earlier struggles, keeping the fight for workers’ rights alive. Just this week Boeing workers voted down a contract proposal from the company, choosing to strike until a better deal is made.
From the elegant HBO series “The Gilded Age” to the glamorous 2022 Met Gala, the influence of this opulent era and its excessive fashion continues to shine.
“It’s an age of unprecedented wealth, creation of amazing technological innovation, like the advent of electricity, electric lights,” historian Edward O’Donnell told ABC News. “We don’t think of railroads as high-tech, but they were high-tech in those days.”
While the Gilded Age was marked by extravagance, O’Donnell noted that it was also characterized by feelings of uncertainty driven by the working class.
“The Gilded Age is very much a time of, sort of a tale of two kinds of America. One where things are going great,” he said. “And at the same time, there’s a lot that people are saying we seem to be heading in a really dark direction.”
Similar to the Gilded Age, we’re seeing unions battle big corporations, increasing concerns about wealth inequality and anxiety over immigration.
With the upcoming election highlighting economic anxiety and an increasing number of billionaires in the U.S., some historians believe we may be experiencing a second Gilded Age.
“We did many things policy and law wise in the 1980s and ’90s that changed the game, that changed our tax structure, changed – almost eradicated – deregulation of Wall Street and so forth, and so that the rules have changed in the favor of the super wealthy,” O’Donnell said.
Wealth distribution in the U.S. shows that the top 10% of households hold 62% of the country’s wealth, compared to the 5.7% held by the bottom 50%.
The combined net worth of the top five richest Americans on the Forbes list has reached an astonishing $840 billion.
Extreme luxury is returning, which is evident in the increasing number of mega-mansions. Superyachts are also sailing worldwide, with some selling for hundreds of millions of dollars. Among them is the world’s largest sailboat, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Janelle Jones is the vice president for policy and advocacy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and first Black woman to become the U.S. Department of Labor’s chief economist. She said the current level of inequality is “unsustainable.”
“Over the past 45 years, CEOs have made over a thousand times more than a typical worker,” Jones said. “For the typical worker, the pay has only increased 24%. Last year, CEOs made more than 300 times the typical worker.”
Jones previously served as the chief economist and policy director at the Service Employees International Union, comprising 2 million health care and public sector members. She views the current strikes as a reflection of growing frustration.
Although many question the effectiveness of unions, Jones believes they represent a sure path to better economic mobility.
“In occupations and industries where unions are strong. We see that wage workers are earning more money,” Jones said. “They have more access to benefits. We also see that inequality is less in these occupations and industries. It’s less between men and women and it’s less between races.”
Despite their efforts, unions often face significant criticism as some negotiations do not result in substantial pay increases or meaningful changes in the workplace. Additionally, newly formed unions frequently struggle to bring corporations to the bargaining table.
Jones believes achieving greater wealth equality will require federal policy.
“After the COVID pandemic and the recession, we started to see the way that policy can make sure there’s a floor for everyone,” she said. “We started to see the way that it can raise living standards for everyone.”
Jones’ proposal resembles the changes that ended the Gilded Age. In the early 20th century, we began to see the first forms of labor laws, which introduced shorter working hours, eventually leading to the eight-hour workday and establishing workers’ compensation.
“The economy is not some, you know, force that rises above us,” Jones said. “It’s not something that dictates what we can do. The economy is for us. We make the rules, we set the parameters, and we know that we can change those rules if we need to.”
ABC’s News Phil Lipof help contributed to this report.