Monday, August 26, 2013

Productivity rises, wages fall

Wage stagnation and market outcomes - Economix - NY Times
You know that it's true.  Of course productivity has risen.  Look at the computers in our hands.  Look at the internet.  And you know that wages have fallen in real dollars.  And the reason is that the unions are too strong?

Sources: Authors' analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' unpublished Total Economy Productivity data, and Employment Cost Index and Employer Costs for Employee Compensation public data series. Note: Productivity series reflects the total economy, while the other two reflect the compensation of all private workers. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data are linearly interpolated between the first quarters of 2000 and 2001, and between the first quarters of 2001 and 2002 (no formal data exists for the second, third and fourth quarters in 2000 or 2001). Only the Employment Cost Index had data available for the second quarter of 2013.
Jared Bernstein,  a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington and a former chief economist to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., explains that higher wages and full employment are what is needed.
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