Season 4
The pandemic created a global economic crisis that economists and experts expected would lead to greater wealth inequality than ever before. Host Rebecca Greenfield along with a team of Bloomberg News reporters heads to seven countries around the world to find out what this world changing event has wrought. What they found was surprising.
U.S.: Where Cash Made All the Difference
When the Covid-19 pandemic started, many people expected inequality to get worse in the U.S. But at least for the bottom 50% of Americans, something surprising happened: Many of the least advantaged boosted their wealth. To start to understand why, we look to cash payments. No-strings-attached money went to people in need in the form of federal stimulus, the child tax credit—and local guaranteed income programs. As pandemic rescue aid wanes, is there a path to making monthly cash payments permanent? Reporter Susan Berfield looks to Jackson, Mississippi, to find out.
More than 150 years after the end of slavery in the U.S., the net worth of a typical white family is nearly six times greater than that of the average Black family. Season 3 of The Pay Check digs into into how we got to where we are today and what can be done to narrow the yawning racial wealth gap in the U.S.
Season 3
A Reparations Experiment
We look at the long fight for reparations for slavery in the U.S. Economists have calculated that each Black American is owed around $300,000, which would just about close the racial wealth gap. While momentum for reparations has grown, it's not likely to happen any time soon -- at least at the federal level. Meanwhile, cities and the state of California are looking into local reparations. Susan Berfield looks at how one town is repaying its Black residents for discrimination.
Season 2
It’s a big, expensive, global mystery. Why do women still make less money—a lot less—than men? In the US, the average woman makes 80 cents to every dollar a man makes. The Pay Check is an in-depth investigation into what that 20 percent difference looks like. In this miniseries we show you how the gender pay gap plays out in real life.
Dads Are Key to Closing the Gender Pay Gap
Susan Berfield tells the story of Kevin Knussman, a police officer whose career suffered when he tried to take time off to care for his wife and new baby.
Help Wanted
During WWII, the U.S. government created high-quality, publicly-funded childcare centers for working moms. In this season’s final episode of The Pay Check, we explore the long term effects of this brief government experiment.
