How is it that the typical male worker had a higher real income in the 1970s than today? How is it that the typical male worker has faced lower and lower incomes every decade since?
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The global economy has had an impact on the wages of American Workers. The Global Economy always has. As other economies were re-built following WW2, name plates on the cars around the world changed from just the big 3 American makers. They now include all the rest like Volkswagen, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda and more recently Kia and Hundai. All of these companies pay lower wages than the ridiculously high UAW negotiated levels for even unskilled jobs in the "old days".
Wages in China are increasing. Wages in the US were far less than Britain in the 1700's. the Global economy drives wages along with various other factors.
Emerging nations usually pay lower wages and, if the industrialized nations hope to compete, they need to figure out ways to compete with that cost factor.
It is a nice thing for the janitor at GM to be making $65,000 per year plus benefits, but the economics didn't make sense then and don't now.
Take heart, though! For the first time since the 70's, there are fewer people to fill the jobs in the US than there are jobs vacant. It's likely that automation will fill some of the gap. That has already been underway fo some time.
This phenomenon is not a global economy thing, but rather a local economy thing.
Robo telephone operators, ATM's, welders, painters, assemblers, robotic fork trucks in plants are becoming common. It's really quite amazing.
Inventory control and the universal product codes on everything is logistically key. Far more accurate, more efficient and more useful than the old human counting and hand written numbers.
Things change. That's the real world today. I work with a lot of clients who are complaining that it's hard to find people to fill jobs and they are paying bonuses for new folks to sign up.
This should impact wage rates. Right now, it is resulting in the mobility of the workers to jobs they desire and this, in my observation, is occurring at all levels of the work forces with which I deal.
When budgets for the new year are implemented, higher wages should be included at companies that hope to keep their key employees.
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