From the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/):
As productivity grows—with each hour of work generating more and more income on average—it seems logical that benefits would be seen across the board, with U.S. workers sharing in the prosperity they help create. Sadly, for decades, this hasn’t been the case—and it was no accident. It was the result of intentional policy choices designed to suppress wage growth and transfer income into the pockets of those at the top.
In the decades following World War II, policy was oriented towards sharing productivity growth more broadly across income classes, and during this time, we saw productivity and worker pay rise hand in hand. As the chart shows, in the 70s, we began to see a striking divergence between pay and productivity develop as the direct result of policy decisions that tolerated excessive unemployment, an inadequate federal minimum wage, attacks on collective bargaining, deregulation, and more.
In time for Labor Day, EPI has released updated numbers in our pivotal research exploring the widening gap between worker productivity and pay. Please help spread the word on the damaging divergence between productivity and typical workers’ pay by sharing this research widely.
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