We read in epi.org, that from 1948-1979, the productivity growth in America, which means the growth of output of goods and services so provided, was +108.1%, and the compensation so provided to the workers of such grew at the rate of 93.2%, signifying that the wages and benefits so provided to those laborers measured at about 86% of the productivity rate so generated. Since then, from the years 1979-2018, the productivity rate over this period of time has declined to being only +69.6%, whereas the compensation thereof was merely at an 11.6% growth rate. This so indicates that not only has the nation's productivity rate slowed down considerably, but even more disturbingly, the very people that are part of that productivity saw their wages increase at such an anemic rate that it only represents about 17% of the productivity rate so generated.
In point of fact, one would expect that in fairness to those that work, that their wages should be in close approximation to the productivity so generated, of which, as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. While in a capitalistic system it is never surprising that the laborers of such, are cheated somewhat, as we see in the years of 1948-1979, in which there was a shortfall in expected wages so paid; which, that said, was still fair-minded enough to be considered to be within a reasonable range. However, over the period of time of 1979-2018, the disparity of wages to productivity is so dramatically short of what would be fairly expected, that it is clear that the laws so enacted and enforced for such tangibles, for instance, as in healthcare benefits as provided by one's employer, as well as in one's right for fair compensation through, for example, the receipt of a minimum wage thereby corresponding to a living wage, along with those miscellaneous mislabeled labor laws so enacted such as "the right to work" law, and so on and so forth, that clearly what we currently have in place has effectively done next to little or next to nothing, to fairly compensate those at their field of labor in a manner in which they are remunerated at a fair wage which thereby correlates well with the productivity so generated by that labor.
Not too surprisingly, when the lion's share of compensation due to increased productivity does not translate to those that are on the frontlines of such work, but rather goes instead to those at the highest echelons of those companies, as well as their enablers, then what so occurs, is what has happened in America, which is that a relatively small portion of Americans, have seen their wealth grow and expand at exceedingly high rates; which therefore means that the balance of Americans have been left behind to stagnate and to rue the fact that they live in a country that is supposed to epitomize opportunity, fairness, and wealth, of which they see that they have very little of that, and instead are left with the crumbs that have fallen off of their master's table.