John Schmitt is a senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. He has written extensively on economic inequality, unemployment, labor-market institutions, and other topics for both academic and popular audiences. He has worked as a consultant for national and international organizations including the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, the European Commission, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Labor Organization, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America. Schmitt's research has focused primarily on inequality in the US labor market and the role of labor-market institutions in explaining international differences in economic performance, particularly between the United States and Europe. Schmitt has co-authored (with Lawrence Mishel and Jared Bernstein) three editions of The State of Working America (Cornell University Press) and most recently co-edited (with Jerome Gautie) Low-Wage Work in the Wealthy World (Russell Sage Foundation, 2010). His writing has appeared in The American Prospect, The Boston Review, Challenge, Dissent, The Guardian, The International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post, and other newspapers and magazines.

Schmitt was a Fulbright scholar at the Universidad Centroamericana "Jose Simeon Cañas" (San Salvador, El Salvador) in 1992-93. Since 1999, he has been a visiting lecturer at the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). He has an undergraduate degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics.