The Great Wage Slowdown of the 21st Century

[packman]

"—American workers have been receiving meager pay increases for so long now that it’s reasonable to talk in sweeping terms about the trend. It is the great wage slowdown of the 21st century.
—The typical American family makes less than the typical family did 15 years ago, a statement that hadn’t previously been true since the Great Depression. Even as the unemployment rate has fallen in the last few years, wage growth has remained mediocre. Last week’s jobs report offered the latest evidence: The jobless rate fell below 6 percent, yet hourly pay has risen just 2 percent over the last year, not much faster than inflation. The combination has puzzled economists and frustrated workers:

Article goes on to discuss various factors for the slowdown- including energy costs, lack of focus on education, and an over-estimation on how healthy the economy was/is until recently:

"another reason for optimism at the White House is Janet Yellen, who took over the Federal Reserve this year. Under Ben Bernanke, her predecessor, the Fed was heroically creative in fighting the financial crisis. After the crisis, though, Fed officials made the same mistake repeatedly: overestimating the health of the economy. Ms. Yellen has suggested that she’s learned that lesson and will be even more aggressive about trying to lift growth with low interest rates"

http://extragoodshit.phlap.net/index.php/the-great-wage-slowdown-of-the-21st-century/#more-284445

[Thinkingabout]

1. Actually the stage was set by Reagan when he worked to bust the union for the flight controllers.

There was gathering of troops to pass the Right to Work in states with promises of more work than the citizens of a state being able to provide and the busting of unions continued. The unions was fighting for minimum wage increased for years and they lost this power through continued attacks on the unions. Unions worked for more that union members, they had great negotiating power, they need to return in higher numbers than ever.