A central puzzle in American politics is the stark increase in economic inequality since the early 1970s due, in part, to the absence of public policies to address this trend. One explanation is policy drift: Inequality has grown in the United States because the political process has been unresponsive to economic trends toward inequality. A second explanation is unequal political influence: Wealthy individuals and corporations wield superior political influence and tilt public policy toward their interests. We compare these explanations using the federal minimum wage and alternative minimum tax (AMT) from 1969 to 2012 as comparison cases. These policies were both denominated in nominal dollars, so the effect of policy inaction is comparable for both policy domains. We find that (1) the U.S. Congress was much more likely to update AMT policy than minimum wage policy after 1978, (2) Congress protected and increased the real value of the AMT deduction for married couples, whereas the real value of the minimum wage and individual deduction declined after 1978, (3) Congress and the President eventually converted the AMT—but not the minimum wage—to automatic adjustments for inflation. These patterns highlight the role of political inequality in economic policy-making.

中文翻译：

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美国的经济不平等和国会行动：最低工资和替代性最低税的比较

美国政治中的一个核心难题是自 1970 年代初以来经济不平等急剧增加，部分原因是缺乏应对这一趋势的公共政策。一种解释是政策漂移：美国的不平等现象加剧，因为政治进程对不平等的经济趋势没有反应。第二种解释是不平等的政治影响：富有的个人和公司拥有卓越的政治影响力，并使公共政策向他们的利益倾斜。我们使用 1969 年至 2012 年的联邦最低工资和替代最低税 (AMT) 作为比较案例来比较这些解释。这些政策都以名义美元计价，因此政策不作为的影响对于两个政策领域都是可比的。我们发现（1）美国国会在 1978 年之后更新 AMT 政策的可能性要远高于 1978 年最低工资政策；（2）国会保护并增加了已婚夫妇 AMT 扣除的实际价值，而最低工资的实际价值1978 年之后个人扣除额下降，(3) 国会和总统最终将 AMT（而不是最低工资）转换为通货膨胀的自动调整。