Policymakers have held off on raising the minimum wage and made it harder for workers to hold bargaining power, and the Fed has opted to push for low inflation instead of high employment. (Photo: Shutterstock)
The bottom 90 percent have suffered a “collapse in pay” that can be laid at the door of politicians and their decisions, reports the Washington Post.
The Post is reporting on an analysis of wage stagnation by the Economic Policy Institute, which says that specific policy changes, including the weakening of unions, the stagnation of the minimum wage and monetary policies pushing low inflation instead of full employment, all contributed to taking power away from workers and pushing it toward their employers.
As a result, that power shift has cost the bottom 90 percent of wage earners $1.53 trillion in income just in 2015—amounting to $10,800 for every American household.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
