"The Myth Of Wage Stagnation" . .. is there NO LOW CNBC will not descend to?

[HughBeaumont]

So now we're getting our paid shills in the form of assistant professors at Troy University?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101373237

Looking at just average hourly wages — adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — shows that earnings increased only 5.58 percent since 1964. However, this statistic and others like it are misleading because they do not factor in new forms of growing employee compensation and they overstate the erosion of purchasing power. Once these contributions are taken into account, a much more clear — and positive — picture of the average incomes surfaces.

Over the last few decades, employees have been receiving an increasingly larger portion of their overall compensation in the form of benefits such as health care, paid vacation time, hour flexibility, improved work environments and even daycare. Ignoring the growth of these benefits and looking at only wages provides a grossly incomplete picture of well-being, and the increase in compensation for work. While it is difficult to adjust for all of these benefits that workers are now receiving, one measure of wage and salary supplements show they have nearly tripled since 1964. Total compensation, which adds these benefits to wages and salaries, shows that earnings have actually increased more than 45 percent since 1964.

Dear God Danny, you CANNOT be this DAFT.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1840&bih=921&q=inflation+adjusted+wages+since+1979&oq=inflation+adjusted+wages+since+1979&gs_l=img.3...1238.8216.0.8559.35.12.0.22.22.0.104.775.11j1.12.0....0...1ac.1.32.img..11.24.812.Lf620gk3Hoo

[Viking12]

1. Classic case of: "I don't like the answer, so I'm going to change the question"

[HughBeaumont]

3. They're still using the "appliance" fallacy.

It's NECESSITIES (education, heath, transportation, housing, groceries, etc) that the American worker is getting absolutely thrashed on. Notice how Necessity costs are never mentioned at all in this article. Oh, so I guess if we can chill our food, we must not be in that bad a shape

[madokie]

2. Hugh the answer to your question is a resounding NO

No wonder we have so many idiots in this world.

[HughBeaumont]

4. Well, one of the comments solves the mystery . . .

"... Daniel J. Smith is an assistant professor of economics at the Johnson Center at Troy University ..."

Wikipedia: "Troy University’s Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy was formed in September as the result of a $3.6 million gift from Troy alumnus Dr. Manuel H. Johnson, BB&T and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation."

The author is another stooge for the Koch brothers. The Johnson Center is one of the newest Koch brothers astroturf false fronts, of which there are almost too many to keep track of anymore.

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. Some of his writings from his Alabama Site

Alcohol sales may improve safety

http://www.troymessenger.com/2011/09/22/alcohol-sales-may-improve-safety/

This one got me....LOL ... talking about important economic insight.


The Law Merchant and International Trade
http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/the-law-merchant-and-international-trade#axzz2qVQyOrZU


Its amazing he has tenure... wait junior professor?.... OK he deserves a gig on CNBC to hock his crap to a crap channel to a crap audience.

[surrealAmerican]

6. They must be joking.

Do they seriously believe low-wage workers today are getting more benefits than they did in 1964? What percentage actually still have employer-payed pensions, health insurance, or even just vacation days? The workers that do get the benefits they are talking about are not those on the lower end of the salary scale.

[Igel]

9. No.

The benefits to this are concentrated in the middle and upper range. You don't have to help the lowest 40% to be able to increase the average. My employee was explicit: I could have gotten an additional $1500 in wages or $1500 in what they contributed towards health insurance. The increase in insurance would have cost me $1750. Had my wages gone up as much as possible my expenses would have increased even further. I "get" a sort of free $250. (Actually the difference is taxes: More wages = higher taxes; more put towards insurance pre-tax, no higher taxes. This was a federal policy decision made a long time ago.)

In other words: The bottom 40% can see no improvement and yet the average can increase. We saw that as the recesssion ended. Media sources didn't cite "average." They cited "median."

The same disparity works with median wages. Lots of mid- and upper-income wages have increased. But the median's stayed the same. The median isn't an average--you list all the household incomes and you find the one in the middle.

Example: old
20k 20k 20k 20k 40k 50k 50k 60k 80k 80k 80k 200k 500k
Median: 50k

new, with two low-wage jobsadded (unemployment goes down!) but everybody else gets good raises:
20k 20k 20k 20k 20k 20k 50k 50k 60k 70k 90k 90k 90k 250k 800k
Median: 50k
And if there had been 4 more low-paid jobs added and a few of the low-paid households getting wages, the median would have fallen while a lot got raises.

The press likes to play with "average" and "median," with "wages" and "compensation" to get their story. "Average wages increase" pisses off some people but not all. "Median wage is stagnant" makes everybody outraged. "Middle class compensation increases" pisses off some people. "Wages stagnant" makes everybody outraged.

The focus isn't on dividing lower and middle. The focus is on wealth inequity. Which is, of course, why the conversation is all about income. Just as people's eyes glaze over when "median" and "average" are used, when "wages" and "compensation" are contrasted, so they get muddled when they have to deal with "wealth" versus "income."

[daleanime]

7. ........

Apparently, yes he can.

[HughBeaumont]

8. He's getting utterly savaged in the comments section . . a surprise, considering it's CNBC.

And the author is responding with more links to sites like AEI, WSJ, Heritage, etc. Unbelievable.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

10. They won't ever do a story about how Wal-Mart, Target, and the rest...

...manipulate hours worked so that workers fall just under the amount of time needed to be considered full time. So a bunch of folks who any normal person would consider full time are instead classed as part time, and get no benefits.

[hay rick]

11. Failing the look out the window test.

Taking his Koch paycheck to tell a select audience what they want to hear. First job used to lead to first car- now it leads to first bicycle. Time to recalculate the chained (workers) cpi...

[QC]

12. Troy has one of those Koch-purchased econ departments.

This guy works for it. He knows which side his bread is buttered on.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/05/11/144280/koch-university-takeover/