> So if the government taxed each corporation $1000 per employee, then gave you that $1000 back at the end of the year, that would mean your wages were less by

> So if the government taxed each corporation $1000 per employee, then gave you that $1000 back at the end of the year, that would mean your wages were less by $1000 a year? In many cases is roughly what social security does. In almost all cases, this is not too grossly far off from what social security does. No, employer's contributions to social security are not typically counted as compensation. More importantly, though, this is beside the point because a) the exact thing you describe doesn't happen in the US; b) to the extent things like it happen, we don't historically consider them compensatory; and c) again, taxes can't explain income stagnation when net taxation is down... so even if what you're saying is true, it's irrelevant to the central point of the discussion.