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> It never does. The first thing in the article is a graph where 7 our of the 11 years shown have positive real wage growth. If worker pay never kept up with

> It never does. The first thing in the article is a graph where 7 our of the 11 years shown have positive real wage growth. If worker pay never kept up with inflation, the country would be among the world’s poorest.

KennyBlanken 5y ago
There hasn't been much positive wage growth for the vast majority of Americans in 70 years. https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/ https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/ The "distribution of family income" chart has been inflation adjusted. Note that for the bottom 10th and 50th percentiles, income has flatlined. The 90th percentile income earners have seen their wages nearly double, after inflation adjustment.
Supermancho 5y ago
How does that math work? > If worker pay never kept up with inflation, the country would be among the world’s poorest. That is flat wrong. Even if you were still making 23$ an hour as you did in the 70's: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/50-years-of-us-wages-in-one-chart https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/50-years-of-us-wages-... https://www.factcheck.org/2019/06/are-wages-rising-or-flat/ https://www.factcheck.org/2019/06/are-wages-rising-or-flat/ ...you'd still be among the top 20% of earners across the earth. Let's take another step down to simple minimum wage. over 7$/hr in the US puts you at... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_minimum_wage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_minimum_w... - in the top 20, which doesn't even include countries without a minimum wage. Your statement about "among the world's poorest" requires revision.
- tempestn 5y ago
  "Never" doesn't only refer to the period from the 1970s to now. You'd be making a lot less than $23 per hour if wage growth never kept up with inflation.
  - Supermancho 5y ago
    I will concede that's true.
- baron816 5y ago
  Maybe we need a better definition of “never”. Are we going back 11 years, or 50 years, or 255 years? If wages truly never keep up with inflation in this country, then we’d be living like they did prior to the industrial revolution. You can’t argue that technology hasn’t had in impact on everyone’s quality of life over longer timespans, which doesn’t get taken fully into account in the data.
- baron816 5y ago
  Also, your cherry picked date range has a complex story behind it. It’s a story of falling inequality, not rising inequality. Chinese workers (among others) ate our lunch…by climbing out of abject poverty. They’ve become much more competitive and have seen their real wages skyrocket. If semi-skilled American workers were making $23/hr and equivalent Chinese workers were making $.23/hr (idk making something up), and now American workers are still making the same but Chinese workers are making $12/hr, is that a bad outcome?
  - bosie 5y ago
    For one of the two countries the answer is yes...
- vkou 5y ago
  The guy panhandling two streets away from me is not far from 'the top 20% of earners across the Earth'. I can't say his situation is entirely enviable, and I would not suggest using that statistic to tell him that he ought to be happy with his lot in life.

KennyBlanken 5y ago

There hasn't been much positive wage growth for the vast majority of Americans in 70 years. https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/ https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/ The "distribution of family income" chart has been inflation adjusted. Note that for the bottom 10th and 50th percentiles, income has flatlined. The 90th percentile income earners have seen their wages nearly double, after inflation adjustment.

Supermancho 5y ago

How does that math work? > If worker pay never kept up with inflation, the country would be among the world’s poorest. That is flat wrong. Even if you were still making 23$ an hour as you did in the 70's: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/50-years-of-us-wages-in-one-chart https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/50-years-of-us-wages-... https://www.factcheck.org/2019/06/are-wages-rising-or-flat/ https://www.factcheck.org/2019/06/are-wages-rising-or-flat/ ...you'd still be among the top 20% of earners across the earth. Let's take another step down to simple minimum wage. over 7$/hr in the US puts you at... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_minimum_wage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_minimum_w... - in the top 20, which doesn't even include countries without a minimum wage. Your statement about "among the world's poorest" requires revision.

tempestn 5y ago
"Never" doesn't only refer to the period from the 1970s to now. You'd be making a lot less than $23 per hour if wage growth never kept up with inflation.
- Supermancho 5y ago
  I will concede that's true.
baron816 5y ago
Maybe we need a better definition of “never”. Are we going back 11 years, or 50 years, or 255 years? If wages truly never keep up with inflation in this country, then we’d be living like they did prior to the industrial revolution. You can’t argue that technology hasn’t had in impact on everyone’s quality of life over longer timespans, which doesn’t get taken fully into account in the data.
baron816 5y ago
Also, your cherry picked date range has a complex story behind it. It’s a story of falling inequality, not rising inequality. Chinese workers (among others) ate our lunch…by climbing out of abject poverty. They’ve become much more competitive and have seen their real wages skyrocket. If semi-skilled American workers were making $23/hr and equivalent Chinese workers were making $.23/hr (idk making something up), and now American workers are still making the same but Chinese workers are making $12/hr, is that a bad outcome?
- bosie 5y ago
  For one of the two countries the answer is yes...
vkou 5y ago
The guy panhandling two streets away from me is not far from 'the top 20% of earners across the Earth'. I can't say his situation is entirely enviable, and I would not suggest using that statistic to tell him that he ought to be happy with his lot in life.