measurement issues
rising earnings inequality
falling terms of trade of labour
(the relationship between the prices workers receive for output and the cost of living)
falling labour share
"In the U.S. non-farm business sector, real median hourly wages rose at an average annual rate of 0.33 per cent between 1980 and 2005, while labour productivity increased at an average annual rate of 1.73 per cent over the same period."
The gap was therefore 1.40 percentage points per year."
" Rising inequality, captured by the difference between median and average real hourly compensation, was the most important explanation for the gap, explaining 45 per cent. "
"Labour‘s terms of trade, defined as the difference between the rate of growth of the price of output and the rate of growth of the price of consumption goods, contributed 23 per cent of the gap as the GDP deflator rose 2.99 per cent per year, while the CPI showed price inflation of 3.31 per cent. ....most (85 per cent) of the deterioration in labour‘s terms of trade stemmed from the quality-adjusted prices of private investment rising much less quickly than the CPI. The slow growth in the quality-adjusted prices of investment goods resulted from very slow growth in the prices of non-residential structures and real declines in the prices of equipment and software "
"The increasing importance of supplementary labour income explained 12 per cent of the gap between the growth rates of median wages and labour productivity."
" the decline in the labour share of GDP from 65.0 per cent in 1980 to 61.3 per cent in 2005, accounted for 17 per cent of the gap between the growth rates of median real wages and labour productivity. "
