3 ms·
> Productivity and wages broke lockstep in the 70s Welllll kinda. Total inflation adjusted comp has done almost nothing but go up: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/
by simonsarris 8y ago
> Productivity and wages broke lockstep in the 70s
Welllll kinda. Total inflation adjusted comp has done almost nothing but go up: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/COMPRNFB https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/COMPRNFB
But I think this too was a paradigm change: Wages shifted to untaxed benefits, like healthcare. At least I think that's going on.
- dv_dt 8y agoWhen you plot the line absent a comparison to growth to company productivity, it loses context. https://www.epi.org/publication/understanding-the-historic-divergence-between-productivity-and-a-typical-workers-pay-why-it-matters-and-why-its-real/ https://www.epi.org/publication/understanding-the-historic-d... > There is a widespread but mistaken belief that wage stagnation has been partially caused by a shift of compensation toward benefits. Benefits have grown far less than most people realize, rising from 18.3 percent of compensation in 1979 to just 19.7 percent of compensation in 2014
- simonsarris 8y agoWow, great counterpoint. Thanks.
- Bartweiss 8y agoHey, thanks very much for this. I've been seeing "rising non-salary compensation" used to explain the gap for ages, but I've never seen anyone actually use the proper comparison. Not exactly convincing with the productivity chart retained.