[Marxism] Slow Wage Growth But Soaring Profits in the Current Recovery

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

Slow Wage Growth But Soaring Profits in the Current Recovery

John Miller


The current economic recovery has done less to raise wages and more to pump
up profits than any of the eight other recoveries since World War II. No
wonder inequality continues to worsen, and most people still doubt that the
economic turnaround will ever benefit them.

A recent study conducted the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-funded think
tank, reports the alarming details. Over the three-year period beginning in
early 2001, when the last economic expansion peaked and the recession began,
corporate profits rose 62.2%, compared to an average growth of 13.9% by the
same point in the other postwar recoveries that lasted that long. Total
labor compensation (the sum of all paychecks and employee benefits), on the
other hand, grew only 2.8%, well under the historical average of 9.9%. (See
Figure 1.) What's more, most of labor's gains came in the form of higher
benefits payments to cover the increasing cost of health care and pensions,
not higher wages. In fact, in 2003 median weekly wages corrected for
inflation declined, for the first time since 1996.

Complete text: http://www.dollarsandsense.org/0904econ.html



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