US millennials were grappling with the inequality of a K-shaped economy long before Covid-19

In a speech on Dec. 1, president-elect Biden spoke about the need to “address the structural inequities in our economy that this pandemic has laid bare” and referred to the “K-shaped” economic recovery, where the letter’s two diverging strokes depict two different economic outcomes facing Americans. The haves and the have-nots.

While the recovery from the pandemic may be the first time the population at large will experience a bifurcated economy, data and research show that some Millennials have been living in a K-shaped economy their entire professional lives. Some...