This is an updated version of an Economic Policy Institute chart I’ve posted before. It shows that from 1948 through 1979, the hourly wages of American workers rose almost as fast as worker productivity. From 1979 on, productivity continued to rise, although at a slower rate, but wages hardly increased at all.
If you include the increased debt, including student debt, that most families have taken on, the average wage-earner’s buying power may be even less than in 1979.
What happened? The EPI cites three things:
- A greater share of national income to holders of financial assets and a smaller share to wages and salaries.
- A greater spread between wage-earners and highly paid managers and professionals.
- A greater increase in the prices of things wage-earners buy (consumer goods and services) than in the things they product (consumer goods, but also capital goods.
What is the answer? The EPI says the U.S. needs stronger labor unions and enactment of pro-labor government policies, including a higher minimum wage, higher taxes on top incomes and a jobs program based on repairing the nation’s infrastructure.
LINKS
The Agenda to Raise America’s Pay by the Economic Policy Institute.
First Day Fairness: An agenda to build worker power and ensure job quality by Celine McNicholas, Samantha Sanders and Heidi Shierholz for the Economic Policy Institute.
Understanding the Historic Divergence Between Productivity and a Typical Worker’s Pay: Why It Matters and Why It’s Real by Josh Bivens and Laurence Mishel for the Economic Policy Institute.
The Survival of the Richest by Nomi Prins for TomDispatch.