Sunday, October 05, 2014 1:37:06 PM
excerpt/ Where's the Wage Growth?
While companies are making more money and skipping out on taxes... While board members are raking in huge capital gains and dividend payouts... While executives are getting huge raises and multi-million dollar bonuses...
The average American worker has been left out.
Since the “recovery” began in 2009, wage gains haven't even kept up with inflation. The real value of compensation per hour has risen just 0.5% — the weakest growth since World War II.
wage growth averages 9.2% in comparable periods, according to Bloomberg data.
haven't seen anything close to that.
[-chart]images.angelpub.com/2014/40/26911/post-war-wage-growth.jpg[/chart]
median household income is about $5,000 per year less than it was even in 1999 (when adjusted for inflation).
Median household income was $56,080 in 1999. Now it's $51,017.
While the average worker made $35,239 last year, the average CEO took home $11.7 million.
That's a big leap from 1983, when the average CEO made 46-times the pay of the average worker. Now, they make 331-times more.
Households in the top 20% of U.S. socioeconomic groups saw their incomes grow by an average of $8,358 a year from 2008 to 2012, compared with a $275 annual decline for the lowest 20%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
worker productivity is higher than it's ever been. Wages simply haven't followed.
[-chart]images.angelpub.com/2014/24/24955/wages-vs-productivity.png[/chart]
problem isn't lazy workers.
It's greedy executives, corrupt politicians, and a post-crisis “stimulus” plan that was designed to help only the wealthiest Americans.
Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, 95% of the income gains reported have gone to the top 1%. That compares with a 45% share for the top 1% percent in the economic expansion of the 1990s and a 65% share from the expansion that followed the 2001 recession.
U.S. has a higher proportion of low-paying jobs than any other country in the developed world.
A "low-paying" job is a job that pays less than two-thirds of a country's median income. On average, around 16% of the jobs in OECD countries are considered low-paying. But in the United States, over 25% of all jobs qualify as such.
when you see an employment report like the one that came out today.
That is, the government will tell you that we added 248,000 jobs in September. But it won't tell you that many of those jobs pay next to nothing.
when you see an employment report like the one that came out today.
That is, the government will tell you that we added 248,000 jobs in September. But it won't tell you that many of those jobs pay next to nothing.
And when they tell you the unemployment rate is under 6%, they gloss over the fact that the percentage of people participating in the labor force is at its lowest level since 1978.
[-chart]images.angelpub.com/2014/40/26910/labor-participation-rate.png[/chart]
There are two Americas, right now.
There's the wealthy America, where corporate executives and politicians reap the rewards of their tax payer-funded recovery.
And there's the underpaid, underemployed America that's footing the bill.
While companies are making more money and skipping out on taxes... While board members are raking in huge capital gains and dividend payouts... While executives are getting huge raises and multi-million dollar bonuses...
The average American worker has been left out.
Since the “recovery” began in 2009, wage gains haven't even kept up with inflation. The real value of compensation per hour has risen just 0.5% — the weakest growth since World War II.
wage growth averages 9.2% in comparable periods, according to Bloomberg data.
haven't seen anything close to that.
[-chart]images.angelpub.com/2014/40/26911/post-war-wage-growth.jpg[/chart]
median household income is about $5,000 per year less than it was even in 1999 (when adjusted for inflation).
Median household income was $56,080 in 1999. Now it's $51,017.
While the average worker made $35,239 last year, the average CEO took home $11.7 million.
That's a big leap from 1983, when the average CEO made 46-times the pay of the average worker. Now, they make 331-times more.
Households in the top 20% of U.S. socioeconomic groups saw their incomes grow by an average of $8,358 a year from 2008 to 2012, compared with a $275 annual decline for the lowest 20%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
worker productivity is higher than it's ever been. Wages simply haven't followed.
[-chart]images.angelpub.com/2014/24/24955/wages-vs-productivity.png[/chart]
problem isn't lazy workers.
It's greedy executives, corrupt politicians, and a post-crisis “stimulus” plan that was designed to help only the wealthiest Americans.
Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, 95% of the income gains reported have gone to the top 1%. That compares with a 45% share for the top 1% percent in the economic expansion of the 1990s and a 65% share from the expansion that followed the 2001 recession.
U.S. has a higher proportion of low-paying jobs than any other country in the developed world.
A "low-paying" job is a job that pays less than two-thirds of a country's median income. On average, around 16% of the jobs in OECD countries are considered low-paying. But in the United States, over 25% of all jobs qualify as such.
when you see an employment report like the one that came out today.
That is, the government will tell you that we added 248,000 jobs in September. But it won't tell you that many of those jobs pay next to nothing.
when you see an employment report like the one that came out today.
That is, the government will tell you that we added 248,000 jobs in September. But it won't tell you that many of those jobs pay next to nothing.
And when they tell you the unemployment rate is under 6%, they gloss over the fact that the percentage of people participating in the labor force is at its lowest level since 1978.
[-chart]images.angelpub.com/2014/40/26910/labor-participation-rate.png[/chart]
There are two Americas, right now.
There's the wealthy America, where corporate executives and politicians reap the rewards of their tax payer-funded recovery.
And there's the underpaid, underemployed America that's footing the bill.
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