The "Mystery" of Growth-Challenged Wages

This sort of thing needs to be said more often.  Changes in the economy ranging from deunionization to the switch towards service sector jobs to foreign competition to regulatory policy to inequality have significantly increased the level of labor market tautness needed for average wages to grow.  Used to be that relatively moderate levels of growth would translate into benefits fairly far down the income ladder.  Now you need sustained, high growth to do the same thing.  If the economy is an orange, it now needs to be squeezed much harder for the median American to get any juice. 

Of course, you're not seeing particularly different levels of growth, and it's not as if the economy no longer has money in it, so where's all the cash going?  Why, to the top, my friends, to the top.  As I like to mention, in 2004, 53 cents of every dollar in salary increases went to the top one percent.  The other 297 million or so of us had to split the remaining 47 cents.  And federal policy isn't blameless either.  In 2006, folks in the bottom fifth got an average of $20 in tax cuts, raising their incomes by 0.3%.  Those in the middle fifth received average cut of $740, boosting their incomes by 2.5%.  And those in the top one percent received average tax cuts of $44,000, boosting their incomes by more than 5%.  And the rich grow richer grow richer grow richer...