[Ericson2314]

I am not sure what you are arguing. What is the mechanism you are proposing?

It sounds like "overhead depresses wages", but outside of a few special cases like Academia, I don't really see much evidence of that. Until recently we had chronically loose labor markets. There is simply no reason to presume employers are handing out all they can in that case. And the ones that are and not paying above-market wages are, by definition, low-productivity businesses that do not deserve to exist.

That's the great thing about high employment: as the "floor" of acceptable comp/working conditions goes up, we find all sorts of shitty (typically small) businesses that cannot make it. Those shitty businesses do fine in the Obama years when everyone is desperate for work, but they can't cut it now. They go under when they can't hire, and average productivity rises accordingly.

[robertlagrant]

> There is simply no reason to presume employers are handing out all they can in that case

I didn't say that there was.

> That's the great thing about high employment

Not if it's coming from the public sector. Then it's government taking taxes from businesses and using it to pay people more than said business can. Saying that means the businesses shouldn't exist feels like a statement of faith.

> we find all sorts of shitty (typically small) businesses that cannot make it

We also find good small businesses that can't, and bad public sector ones. We just call the public sector ones "underfunded" when that happens.