For the wage growth, I'm curious about seeing a similar chart to the very last one on price increases from 2001, 2007 and 2019 but comparing wage growth during those years. I'm guessing recessions effect the wage growth quite a bit. My husband seems to think that wage suppression started happening with feminism taking hold and having more women entering the workforce, therefore leading to more supply, lower demand and lower wages (I don't agree with this as the primary factor of why wages haven't increased) but I suspect the amount of women entering the workforce isn't equal to a doubling of the workers from the 80's onward. I mean we also had large population growth! What are the biggest factors contributing to lack of wage growth?
Hi, Kathryn: I thought this was a great piece and shared it with a number of friends. One of the comments I received was about the data source, EPI. Basically, I was told that the EPI is “consistently rated as a left-leaning think tank" (which is not necessarily negative, at least to me.) I was also told that “someone from the right could probably cite data supporting a more conservative viewpoint.” What about the data question? Is there really any dispute about the facts? I'm sensitive to the subject because of all the furor around the BLS.
EPI is definitely left! They are pro-minimum wage, pro-union, pro-sick days, and lots of other left policy to increase the wages of workers. However, since the 1980s, EPI has produced summary extracts of wage data from the current population survey. They haven't done much to the data except made it easier to access for people who don't know how to use programming languages to extract microdata.
That said, conservatives would argue with the idea of wage stagnation, but they'd point more to the increase in compensation outside of wages. In other words, they'd disagree with the conclusion and not these specific data points.
Enormously helpful. I never thought much about data lineage before, oddly enough. THANKS.
PS: We are drowning in data, but few people seem able to communicate data insights through compelling stories. You and Robin do that well. At some point it might be interesting to spend a few minutes discussing that on one of your episodes. That and improving data literacy seem really important.
Is this not the result of the Baumol Price Disease? In which case, it isn't clear to me that there is anything that can (or should) done? Or is it different somehow?
For the wage growth, I'm curious about seeing a similar chart to the very last one on price increases from 2001, 2007 and 2019 but comparing wage growth during those years. I'm guessing recessions effect the wage growth quite a bit. My husband seems to think that wage suppression started happening with feminism taking hold and having more women entering the workforce, therefore leading to more supply, lower demand and lower wages (I don't agree with this as the primary factor of why wages haven't increased) but I suspect the amount of women entering the workforce isn't equal to a doubling of the workers from the 80's onward. I mean we also had large population growth! What are the biggest factors contributing to lack of wage growth?
Hi, Kathryn: I thought this was a great piece and shared it with a number of friends. One of the comments I received was about the data source, EPI. Basically, I was told that the EPI is “consistently rated as a left-leaning think tank" (which is not necessarily negative, at least to me.) I was also told that “someone from the right could probably cite data supporting a more conservative viewpoint.” What about the data question? Is there really any dispute about the facts? I'm sensitive to the subject because of all the furor around the BLS.
EPI is definitely left! They are pro-minimum wage, pro-union, pro-sick days, and lots of other left policy to increase the wages of workers. However, since the 1980s, EPI has produced summary extracts of wage data from the current population survey. They haven't done much to the data except made it easier to access for people who don't know how to use programming languages to extract microdata.
That said, conservatives would argue with the idea of wage stagnation, but they'd point more to the increase in compensation outside of wages. In other words, they'd disagree with the conclusion and not these specific data points.
Enormously helpful. I never thought much about data lineage before, oddly enough. THANKS.
PS: We are drowning in data, but few people seem able to communicate data insights through compelling stories. You and Robin do that well. At some point it might be interesting to spend a few minutes discussing that on one of your episodes. That and improving data literacy seem really important.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Is this not the result of the Baumol Price Disease? In which case, it isn't clear to me that there is anything that can (or should) done? Or is it different somehow?