Lies, damned lies, and statistics... There seem to be some serious flaws in their reasoning. First, as others have noted, it's likely that layoffs disproporti

Lies, damned lies, and statistics... There seem to be some serious flaws in their reasoning. First, as others have noted, it's likely that layoffs disproportionately affected low wage earners. Pay is a measure of the perceived value of an employee to the organization and the perceived value of the employee is precisely the criterion most likely to be used in determining who to lay off/fire. Without raising any individual's pay, simply laying off low wage earners raises median pay. Second, salaried employees are doing considerably more work to pick up the slack for all the positions that have been eliminated. Even if their absolute wages have risen, it's unlikely that their wages have risen in direct proportion to their increased productivity. Real wages, in terms of inflation-adjusted wages per unit of value added by the employee has likely fallen significantly.