Those don't capture total remuneration, as captured by the BLS. Since 1970 employees have received more of their total remuneration outside of wages, and these

Those don't capture total remuneration, as captured by the BLS. Since 1970 employees have received more of their total remuneration outside of wages, and these benefits are usually fixed cost. More relevant is total cost to employ, also tracked by BLS [1]. This accounts for legislative changes that add cost to employ, which lowers money available for wages. Such laws are generally beneficial to workers, and there have been gains here too Also the top is not some fixed group. Over a career a significant percentage of people enter and leave. The top % contains so many people it's simply bigotry to claim their gains were taken from others. The correct answer is that low skill jobs haven't seen the productivity gains that skilled ones have since 1970. Computerization didn't help plumbers or cooks increase output as much as it helped architects, accountants, etc. If anything, Baumols Cost Disease [2] is pulling up wages for lower incomes beyond their productivity warrants. Otherwise they'd have similar income to the same jobs in 1950. [1] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease