A stunning stat about pay seems impossible but actually is true

[applegrove]

A stunning stat about pay seems impossible but actually is true

by Matt O'Brien at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/22/men-havent-gotten-a-raise-in-40-years/?tid=pm_business_pop_b

"SNIP............


That is when your employer would actually pay you more money. Now, it is true that some people still have experience with this all-but-forgotten practice, but even the ones who do tend not to get pay increases that keep up with price increases. That is why, as David Wessel of the Brookings Institution points out, the typical male worker actually saw his after-inflation pay fall between 1973 and 2014.

What is four lost decades between friends?

..............

Well, it's the inequality, stupid. The tricky thing, though, is that there are two different kinds. There is inequality between workers and owners, and inequality between workers themselves. It is this last one that is the biggest culprit when it comes to why a growing economy has not meant growing incomes for so many people. The combination of tax cuts for the top, new technologies that have helped high-earners more than anyone else, and globalization moving manufacturing jobs overseas has made growth much more lopsided the past 30 years. A rising tide, in other words, might lift all boats, but not many people can afford a boat anymore.

But, at the same time, inequality between capital and labor has hit a postwar high. The question is whether that is a blip or a beginning. Between the 1970s and 1990s, labor's share of income bounced around in a pretty predictable pattern: up during the booms and down during the busts. But after the tech bubble burst in 2000, it collapsed and didn't recover. The same thing happened after the housing bubble went poof amid a parade of National Association of Realtors ads assuring us that everything was fine. The result of these two kinds of inequality is that workers are not only getting a smaller slice of the income pie, but typical workers are also getting a smaller piece of a smaller slice now that the top 1 percent of workers are gobbling up so much.


.............SNIP"

[DJ13]

1. K&R

[senseandsensibility]

2. kick

Cheap labor is what "conservatives" are all about. Everything else is a cover for that.

[riderinthestorm]

3. BIG K&R!

[TheMastersNemesis]

4. The Article Describes The "Service Economy" Reagan Said He Would Create.

Reagan was the spokesman for the economic interests that created the new "service economy". Americans were warned, yet they kept voting in politicians that supported and advanced the idea over time.

[Midnight Writer]

6. I recently heard an economist predict a "servant economy"

and yes, I believe he was serious. He said that the future employment opportunities would be for skilled butlers, chauffeurs, housekeepers, executive chefs, nannies, gardeners, private pilots, yacht skippers, entertainment and tour guides, tutors, and other skills needed to serve the uber-rich.

[FreakinDJ]

5. We've been saying that for 30 years

Where in the world has this guy been

[TheMastersNemesis]

11. I Knew In 1981 What Reagan Meant By The Service Economy. I Was At DOL.

I have been on top of this crap all along. Where have the American people been. Their voting helped this kind of economy happen. Reagan got elected and was elected again after his "service economy" announcement.

[JDPriestly]

7. K&R. The article is a must-read.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. I know Right Wingers who believe the ONLY reason you don't get a raise is you lack courage....

These people think life is a cartoon where they picture the henpecked Droopy Dog kinda husband with the massive wife armed with a giant rolling pin. He's too spineless to march into the bosses office and demand a raise.

[Recursion]

9. Specifically white males

Every other demographic has seen pay increases over the past 40 years.

This may be why language about wage stagnation gets better responses from white males than from other groups.

[stillwaiting]

10. How large are these pay increases? Do educate us. Over a 40 year period. nt

[Recursion]

12. I did an OP on it a while back; I'll see if I can find it

It was much more for women than men (like 12% for white women and 16% for black women) and just under 10% for black men. (Note that women and minorities still didn't catch up with white men, even while their pay rose and white men's pay fell.)