Disparity Between Productivity and Pay: $3 Trillion a Year (Guess who loses?)

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Disparity Between Productivity and Pay: $3 Trillion a Year

Friday
May 7
12:37 pm

By Roger Bybee


The growing economic polarization of America is increasingly obvious, if not a major topic of discourse in mainstream corporate media.

As Les Leopold notes in The Looting of America, the richest 1% of earners collected 8% of national income in 1973. "By 2006, the top 1% got nearly 23% of the pie, the highest proportion since 1929, " he writes. Moreover, the richest 1% now earns more than the bottom 50% of Americans. During almost exactly the same period, the pay gap between the top 100 CEOs and workers rose from 45 to 1 in 1970 to Himalayan proportions in 2006, reaching 1,723 to 1, Leopold says, citing data from Forbes.

But one of the most significant and least-discussed elements in the stunning polarization of America is the extent to which rising productivity has become unhitched from the way that its rewards are distributed.

PRODUCTIVITY UNHITCHED FROM WORKER PAY

Leopold lays out the astonishing data on this disparity:

By 2007, real wages in today's dollars had slid from their peak of $746 per week in 1973 to $612 per week--an 18% drop. Had wages increased along with productivity, the current average wage for nonsupervisory workers would be $1,171 per week--$60,892 instead of today's average of $31,824.

Our real average compensation is now about $25 per hour, including all benefits, representing a small increase from the early 1970s If it had risen along with productivity, it would be more like $41 an hour. The productivity bonus--about $16 an hour--is still AWOL.

Over roughly the same period, the ratio of household debt to income went from 55% to 127%, as Americans tried to make up for the loss of real wages with increased use of their credit cards.

American families have found themselves with vastly reduced time off the job, losing vacation days, sick time, and other leave. Until the recession hit, we were working the longest hours in the world. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5940/disparity_between_productivity_and_pay_3_trillion_a_year/

[indepat]

1. But, but, but my fundy cousin says America is the best place in the world and it probably is

for that top 1%, hell, maybe even the top 15%-20% if they have good health coverage. For most of the rest, well they live in a RW world, scampering for some trickle-down scraps. :-)

[redqueen]

2. K&R