[refurb]

Not sure why your reference looks at hourly wage and not total compensation. Seems like a selective choice of metrics.

"But between 1979-2019, whilst net productivity has continued to increase by an expected 70%, hourly compensation in the country is less than a fifth of that at just 12%."

[kcatskcolbdi]

I assume because hourly wage is easier to track and provides a more direct comparison.

What difference would switching to total compensation make?

[refurb]

Because non-wage compensation has made up a bigger and big part of total compensation - healthcare, 401k match, fringe benefits, bonuses, etc.

My dad worked as a teacher and got a super fat pension - that’s not included.

Total compensation has risen much more than hourly wage.

[BlargMcLarg]

Do you think those increases truly make up the huge gap between productivity increase and hourly wage increase? What's more, do you think most of near median earners get any significant benefits?

I don't think article is necessarily wrong in pointing out the huge gap when most big total comp increases only seem to apply to the upper middle class. At the very least, I don't think Pizza Friday is going to make up that huge gap.

[refurb]

I think you’re underestimating the impact of non-wage compensation, even for normal, middle class jobs. Your “pizza Fridays” is a pretty flippant way to describe things like health insurance, retirement benefits, etc.

When you add up the share of income that goes to employees, total compensation growth keeps up with productivity growth.

https://www.nber.org/digest/oct08/total-compensation-reflect...

[BlargMcLarg]

The source you cite goes up to 2006 and related paper was published in 2008. Surely I don't have to point out the many changes that happened in the last 15 years. I could find a few papers past 2008 saying the exact opposite.

I agree total comp is the better metric, but your source doesn't really do anything to dispel skepticism when many current day anecdotes lament the lack of secondary benefits beyond said Pizza Friday. A fair number of Americans are given contracts which skirt the border of having to be paid secondary benefits. At the same time, those are primarily the Americans who are most sensitive to price increases in food, gas, rent, real estate (even if this isn't part of inflation), utilities and more. If there is are decisive sources talking about pre- or even post-COVID, that'd be another story.

[refurb]

Look at the data I was criticizing: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/productivity-workforc...

Even if total compensation was flat from 2006 to 2019, it would still be a radically different conclusion that what was drawn in the article.

The article says hourly wages only increase half of what productivity did by 2006. Yet total compensation increased equally.

[kn0where]

There are tons of employers out there that don’t match 401k contributions, make employees pay their healthcare premiums out of their salary, and don’t give meaningful bonuses.

[refurb]

Sure, but does that mean you just ignore non-cash compensation when looking at employee compensation? Of course not.