Economist's View: "The Sad But True Story of Wages in America"
While U.S. productivity surged 62.5% between 1989 and 2010, real hourly wages for both private and public-sector workers grew only 12%, with the gap widening dramatically for less-educated workers. The authors argue that decades of policy prioritizing low consumer prices through deregulation, union-weakening, and globalization have eroded worker bargaining power, allowing the top 1% to capture 56% of income growth while corporate profits recovered from the recession while employee compensation remained depressed.