Those charts almost never adjust for feminism and the fact that we added about 40% more people into the work force by allowing women to work. And for the US it

Those charts almost never adjust for feminism and the fact that we added about 40% more people into the work force by allowing women to work. And for the US it certainly doesn't account for the 30 million or so in additional population we've gained through illegal immigration which increases wage competition on the low end of the spectrum, keeping the working poor wages down to the benefit of the upper classes. I've noticed that the "decoupling" in your UK chart roughly coincides with the creation of the EU which allowed cheap Eastern European laborers to come in which potentially had a similar impact to the illegal immigration in the US. Though I'm less confident of that since I'm not as familiar with economic changes in the UK over that time period. Productivity and wages are still related, it's just that productivity is not the only variable.