![]() From 2000 to 2016, wage growth was consistently stronger for high-wage workers, continuing the trend in rising wage inequality. ![]() But 2016 was a welcome break from years past-only time and proper policies will tell if this performance is to be repeated in coming years. To be clear, there is still substantial work to be done to reach genuine full employment, reduce wage disparities by gender and race, and reverse the damage done to wages by decades-long growth in inequality and wage stagnation. In fact, wage growth in 2016 was more rapid for middle- and low-wage workers than for those at the top (defying the longer-term trend of more wage growth at the top). What stands out in this last year of data is that the economic recovery appears to finally be reaching a broad swath of American workers. By looking at real hourly wages by percentile, we can compare what is happening over time for the lowest-wage workers (those at the 10th and 20th percentiles) with wage trends for the highest-wage workers (those at the 90th and 95th percentiles). This report details the most up-to-date hourly wage trends through 2016 across the wage distribution and education categories, highlighting important differences by race and gender. The latest data on hourly wages shows that the gap between those at the top and those at the middle and bottom has continued to increase through much of the 2000s. This has prevented the benefits of productivity growth from “trickling down” to reach most households. This rising inequality is happening largely because big corporations and the wealthy have been rewriting the rules of the economy, particularly the job market, to stack the deck in their favor. A hugely disproportionate share of economic gains from rising productivity is going to the top 1 percent and to corporate profits, instead of to ordinary workers-who are more productive and more educated than ever. ![]() For example, had all workers’ wages risen in line with productivity, as they did in the three decades following World War II, an American earning around $40,000 today would instead be making close to $61,000 (EPI 2017c). The way rising inequality has directly affected most Americans is through sluggish hourly wage growth in recent decades, despite an expanding and increasingly productive economy. Rising inequality means that although we are finally seeing broad-based wage growth, ordinary workers are just making up lost ground, rather than getting ahead. But large gaps in equality by gender, race, and wage level remain, and some of these gaps are increasing. In 2016, with an improving economy, most workers at all income and educational levels finally began to see an increase in wages. Rising wage inequality has been a defining feature of the American economy for nearly four decades. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |