[jaggederest]

I think you have to look at the division of the added value by the changes in productivity. Were it something closer to 50-50 that might be reasonable, but so far as I can tell based on changes in wages over time, that's not the case at all.

[norseboar]

Totally. I don't think there's anything wrong with saying "Gee, this store is making way more money but its employees are being paid the same, that sucks". I think indexing the minimum wage to inflation makes sense. I think a lot of low-skill jobs should be higher-paid, and I think raising the minimum wage is a good tool in some cases (although I think the people pushing for national increases often overlook the effect that a doubling wage will have in a rural area where the cost of labor really does impact the ability of a smaller store to stay open).

My point is just that I don't think "wages should keep pace with productivity" is true. If wages always rose with productivity, we'd be focusing all the gains on the people in the sectors where productivity is growing, and not lowering the cost of goods for everybody else.