Date: 2024-04-24 Page is: DBtxt003.php L0900-Reich-US-Productivity-v-Wages-diverging
PROGRESS AND PERFORMANCE
US PRODUCTIVITY AND WAGES DIVERGING
Robert Reich has been addressing this issue for several decades
US PRODUCTIVITY AND WAGES DIVERGING
Robert Reich has been addressing this issue for several decades
Why has US hourly compensation flatlined for nearly 50 years?
There are many different versions of the graph above. This was published by Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration.
From the end of the Second World War until the 1970s productivity and hourly compensation improved together and were shared equitably.
From the 1970s to the present, wage earners have not shared very much in the benefits of improved productivity.
Why has this issue not been addressed in several decades?
Clearly this is a huge failure of leadership in the USA and all Western democracies and the root cause of much of modern discontent.
Peter Burgess