There are two big forces driving this divergence. First, the last 50 years have seen a series of "one off" increases to global labor supply. Between Asia and f

There are two big forces driving this divergence. First, the last 50 years have seen a series of "one off" increases to global labor supply. Between Asia and former communist countries, American workers have been forced to compete in an environment dominated by the largest globalization of labor ever. That competition pushes wages down for anything that can be done outside our borders. Second, as the issuer of the world's reserve currency during this period of massive globalization (while all this increased trade is creating a demand for dollars overseas), America's financial sector is involved in exporting dollars the way Norway exports oil. So Wall Street is sitting at the center of an incredible boom driven by international forces + the increased financialization that has come from having an artificially strong dollar (kind of a Dutch Disease for us, where the "sector" thats growing is the dollar-printing sector). Most dollars are printed using private debt, so Wall Street is basically the Saudi Arabia for dollars. Given these two forces, of course Wall Street compensation was going radically outpace the minimum wage. (Not that I would/could have predicted that in 1970 if I had been alive then.)