It turns out that the United States has less intergenerational relative mobility, the ability of a family to improve their economic status, than Canada and several European countries.
About half (50 percent) of parental earnings advantages are passed onto sons in the United States compared to less than 20 percent in high-mobility European countries. This means that it takes an average of six generations for family economic advantage to disappear in the United States compared to three generations in Canada, Finland, Norway and Denmark.
42 percent of American men born into the poorest fifth of families stay in the bottom fifth of the earnings distribution as adults, compared to 25 to 30 percent in some other countries.
A smaller percentage of Americans move from the bottom to the top fifth in one generation, than do people in other European countries. Note that Americans making such a climb travel a further distance in absolute dollars than do Europeans because of greater earnings inequality in the United States.
Read the summary of findings (pdf) of the February 2008 report.
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