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Economy
In reply to the discussion: STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 22 February 2013 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)10. 40 Percent of Americans Now Make Less than 1968 Minimum Wage By Dave Johnson
http://www.nationofchange.org/40-percent-americans-now-make-less-1968-minimum-wage-1361362370
You may have seen the charts showing how working peoples wages stopped going up along with productivity gains:
This means the gains went somewhere else. See if you can guess who got them? (Hint: its the 1%; this is one driver of the terrible income and wealth inequality.) This breakoff of wages from productivity growth is partly (largely?) the result of trade agreements that pit Americans against exploited workers in non-democracies. This weakened the bargaining power of unions, moved factories and industries out of the country, devastated entire regions of our country and gave the giant multinational corporations, Wall Street and the billionaires the leverage they needed
Economist Dean Baker describes one effect of this in Minimum Wage: Who Decided Workers Should Fall Behind?
If the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth [since 1968], it would be over $16.50 an hour today. That is higher than the hourly wages earned by 40 percent of men and half of women.
Baker is referring to this CEPR study: The Minimum Wage and Economic Growth.
40% Of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage
Read what Baker wrote again. The minimum wage would be $16.50 an hour $33,000 a year if it had kept up with the growth of productivity since 1968. To put the effect of this a different way, 40% of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage, had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity gains...
You may have seen the charts showing how working peoples wages stopped going up along with productivity gains:
This means the gains went somewhere else. See if you can guess who got them? (Hint: its the 1%; this is one driver of the terrible income and wealth inequality.) This breakoff of wages from productivity growth is partly (largely?) the result of trade agreements that pit Americans against exploited workers in non-democracies. This weakened the bargaining power of unions, moved factories and industries out of the country, devastated entire regions of our country and gave the giant multinational corporations, Wall Street and the billionaires the leverage they needed
Economist Dean Baker describes one effect of this in Minimum Wage: Who Decided Workers Should Fall Behind?
If the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth [since 1968], it would be over $16.50 an hour today. That is higher than the hourly wages earned by 40 percent of men and half of women.
Baker is referring to this CEPR study: The Minimum Wage and Economic Growth.
40% Of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage
Read what Baker wrote again. The minimum wage would be $16.50 an hour $33,000 a year if it had kept up with the growth of productivity since 1968. To put the effect of this a different way, 40% of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage, had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity gains...
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