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The
Wage That Meant Middle Class,
L.Uchitelle, NY Times, 4/08
Real
Eearnings in March 2008, BLS Apr. 16, 2008 Real
average weekly earnings rose by 0.2 percent from February to March
after seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data
released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department
of Labor. Increases of 0.3 percent in both average weekly hours
and average hourly earnings were partially offset by a 0.4 percent
increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and
Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
Data on average weekly earnings are collected from the payroll
reports of private nonfarm establishments. Earnings of both full-time
and part-time workers holding production or nonsupervisory jobs
are included. Real average weekly earnings are calculated by adjusting
earnings in current dollars for changes in the CPI-W.
Average weekly earnings rose by 3.3 percent, seasonally adjusted,
from March 2007 to March 2008. After deflation by the
CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 1.0 percent.
Before adjustment for seasonal change and inflation, average weekly
earnings were $607.49 in March 2008, compared with $580.99 a year
earlier. [emphasis added--jz]
For Many, a Boom That Wasn’t, David Leonhardt,
NYTimes, 4/9/08
Real
wage reversal persists, Bernstein, EPI, 2/08
Change in real compensation by different income levels
8/9/07
 .
Slow
Productivity Growth, Not Just Income Redistribution, to Blame
for Lagging Wages, CEPR 4/07
Understanding
Low-Wage Work in the United States, Boushey et al,
3/07
Earnings
premium for skilled workers down sharply in recent years,
2/06
"Bush's Expansion Leaves Workers
Behind, Sparking Fed Friction
Jan. 17 [2006] (Bloomberg) -- American workers
have rarely taken home a smaller share of the nation's prosperity,
a condition that is undermining bipartisan support for free trade
and creating friction between President George W. Bush's administration
and the Federal Reserve.
After 16 consecutive quarters of economic growth,
pay is rising at a slower rate than in any similar expansion since
the end of World War II. Companies are paying less of their cash
gains in the form of wages and salaries than at any time since
the Great Depression, according to government figures.
Such a disparity, partly the result of globalization
of the labor market, helps explain why the Bush administration
is struggling to muster support for lower trade barriers even
with the jobless rate at a four-year low. The imbalance has also
triggered a debate between Bush's Treasury Department and the
Fed about how low unemployment can go without kindling inflation.
``There is no doubt that something is happening''
to reduce labor's share of income, says Robert Solow, a Nobel
Prize- winning economist and professor emeritus at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in Cambridge. An economy that doesn't
distribute its gains widely is ``poorly performing,'' he says.
From the final quarter of 2001 through last year's
third quarter, total compensation paid to employees by corporations,
including health benefits, rose at a 4.3 percent average annual
rate, according to government figures. That's the slowest growth
for any similar period in post-war expansions lasting at least
four years.
`Not Connecting'-- Stripping
away benefits, corporate wages and salaries rose at a 3.4 percent
annual rate in the 16-quarter period, the slowest of any post-war
expansion lasting that long. Wages and salaries as a share of
the cash corporations are generating from the expansion stood
at 51 percent in the second and third quarters, the lowest in
government records going back to 1929. Including benefits, labor's
share was the lowest since 1997......... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_us&refer=us&sid=azvCEhXtl1g0
75%
of American Workers Don't Have Decent Wages and Benefits,
CEPR 10/05
Basic
family budget calculator, EPI
An
off-kilter expansion: Slack job market continues to hurt wage
growth, Bernstein & Price, 9/05
Incomes
Down; Poverty Up, Bernstein and Mishel
The
Productivity Problem, J.Tasini,
Working Life, July 14, 2005
Union
Advantage Reaches New Highs
Living-Wage
Politics--states are raising minimum wage
How
Prime-Age Workers Get Trapped in Minimum Wage Jobs,
Boushey, 5/05
The
Fruits Of One's Labor, Max
B. Sawicky 5/05
"In the past three years...shop-happy consumers,
cheerfully determined to live beyond their means, leaned a lot
more heavily on borrowings ($675 billion of non-mortgage debt)
than paychecks ($530 billion) to cover the $1.3 trillion increase
in their spending." .Source for charts: Stephanie Pomboy,
MacroMavens, via Alan Abelson, Barron's, April 25, 2005;
Abelson quoted in http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/
Young
college graduates face weak labor market
5/6/05
Real
Wages: two years of loss Profits
fine  [graph-Business
Week 4/18/05]
"Over the last 30 years
the typical (median) wage in the United States has hardly grown
-- only about 9 percent. Productivity -- output per employee --
has grown by 82 percent over the same period. Normally we would
expect wages and salaries to grow with productivity. These trade
agreements have helped keep wages from growing here, by increasing
competition with workers making 60 cents per hour and by making
it easier for employers to threaten to move when workers demand
their share of rising productivity. " "CAFTA
Fall Short on Economic Arguments," By Mark Weisbrot, 4/05.
See also http://www.cbpp.org/4-21-05inc.htm
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