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Why Aren’t Workers Benefiting from Labour Productivity Growth in the United States?

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  • Lawrence Mishel
  • Kar-Fai Gee

Abstract

Changes in real wages, or wages adjusted for the cost of living, are the most direct route through which labour productivity affects living standards. Yet labour productivity in the United States increased by 80 per cent between 1973 and 2011, while median real hourly wages remained virtually stagnant. This article presents a framework in which this reality is decomposed into four components: deterioration of labour’s terms of trade, rising benefits as a share of wages, decline of the share of labour compensation in GDP, and rising wage inequality. Since 2000, the historically large gap between real median wages and productivity in the United States was driven by rising wage inequality and the decline of labour compensation as a share of GDP.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence Mishel & Kar-Fai Gee, 2012. "Why Aren’t Workers Benefiting from Labour Productivity Growth in the United States?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 23, pages 31-43, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:23:y:2012:3
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    File URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/23/IPM-23-Mishel-Gee.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Clinton P. McCully & Brian C. Moyer & Kenneth J. Stewart, 2007. "A Reconciliation between the Consumer Price Index and the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index," BEA Papers 0079, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    2. Wojciech Kopczuk & Emmanuel Saez & Jae Song, 2007. "Uncovering the American Dream: Inequality and Mobility in Social Security Earnings Data since 1937," NBER Working Papers 13345, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Joao Paulo Pessoa & John Van Reenen, 2013. "Wage growth and productivity growth: the myth and reality of 'decoupling'," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 401, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
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    Cited by:

    1. James Ashwell, 2021. "A Strengthening Position at the Bargaining Table? Understanding the Productivity-Median Wage Gap in Canada, 1976-2019," CSLS Research Reports 2021-09, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    2. Eric LABAYE & Jaana REMES, 2015. "Digital Technologies and the Global Economy's Productivity Imperative," Communications & Strategies, IDATE, Com&Strat dept., vol. 1(100), pages 47-64, 4th quart.
    3. Chen, W.D., 2018. "Upward wage rigidity and Japan's dispatched worker system," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 152-162.
    4. Mathieu Dufour & Ellen Russell, 2015. "Why Isn't Productivity More Popular? A Bargaining Power Approach to the Pay/Productivity Linkage in Canada," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 28, pages 47-62, Spring.
    5. James Uguccioni, Andrew Sharpe and Alexander Murray, 2016. "Labour Productivity and the Distribution of Real Earnings in Canada, 1976 to 2014," CSLS Research Reports 2016-15, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    6. Elena Deskoska & Jana Vlčková, 2018. "The Role of Technological Change in Income Inequality in the United States," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2018(1), pages 47-66.
    7. Naude, Wim & Nagler, Paula, 2015. "Industrialisation, Innovation, Inclusion," MERIT Working Papers 2015-043, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    8. Christopher D. Blake, 2022. "A method for comparing compensation and productivity levels across US regions," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(12), pages 1-30, December.
    9. Nancy Birdsall & Christian J. Meyer, 2015. "The Median is the Message: A Good Enough Measure of Material Wellbeing and Shared Development Progress," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 6(4), pages 343-357, November.
    10. Cordeiro De Noronha Pessoa, Joao Paulo & Van Reenen, John, 2013. "Decoupling of wage growth and productivity growth? Myth and reality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121790, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Dünhaupt, Petra., 2013. "Determinants of functional income distribution : theory and empirical evidence," ILO Working Papers 994841223402676, International Labour Organization.
    12. Mark Partridge & Alexandra Tsvetkova & Michael Betz, 2021. "Are the most productive regions necessarily the most successful? Local effects of productivity growth on employment and earnings," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 30-61, January.
    13. Anna M. Stansbury & Lawrence H. Summers, 2017. "Productivity and Pay: Is the link broken?," NBER Working Papers 24165, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. David M. Williams, 2021. "Pay and Productivity in Canada: Growing Together, Only Slower than Ever," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 40, pages 3-26, Spring.
    15. repec:ilo:ilowps:484122 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Lawrence Mishel & Josh Bivens, 2021. "The Productivity-Median Compensation Gap in the United States: The Contribution of Increased Wage Inequality and the Role of Policy Choices," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 41, pages 61-97, Fall.
    17. Andrew Sharpe & James Uguccioni, 2017. "Decomposing the Productivity Wage Nexus in Selected OECD Countries, 1986-2013," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 32, pages 25-43, Spring.
    18. Alicia Swords, 2019. "Action research on organizational change with the Food Bank of the Southern Tier: a regional food bank’s efforts to move beyond charity," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(4), pages 849-865, December.
    19. Cowgill, Matt, 2013. "A Shrinking Slice of the Pie: The Labour Income Share in Australia," MPRA Paper 46209, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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