It's not even that mysterious: Productivity gains haven't been evenly distributed any more than income gains have been. Even discounting demographic changes lik

It's not even that mysterious: Productivity gains haven't been evenly distributed any more than income gains have been. Even discounting demographic changes like substantially increased rates of immigration, it's statistically suspect to compare the median wage (typically of only non-supervisory workers) or living standard with the sum total productivity of the economy. The disparity in income growth rates across households can be related in part to productivity. Changes in technology do not have an equal impact on all workers in the economy. Over the past 30 years, improvements in technology, such as computer innovations, have led to increases in labor productivity for workers with technical skills ... These high-skilled workers experienced greater increases in compensation than lower-skilled workers. ... For a select group of “economic superstars,” technological innovations have expanded the size of audiences, leading to strong increases in income ... The rapidly growing demand for video games has resulted in similar income growth in a narrow segment of the software industry. In the late 1990s, creators of video game software experienced average annual income growth rates estimated to be 6 percentage points higher than workers creating non-entertainment software products, such as for computer databases. https://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/econrev/pdf/1q07will.pdf https://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/econrev/pdf/1q07will.... The whole paper is well worth perusing. You'll be surprised how much of the total income gain in the U.S. is attributable to movie stars and pro athletes, and that is nearly entirely (economically speaking) a result of their exceptional "productivity". That is, being one of only a thousand or so people capable of producing something people will collectively pay billions for.