United States - Falling wages
WORKERS, SEPT 2007 ISSUE
In the USA, wages have been forced down by 2 per cent since 2003. And workers' share of Gross Domestic Product is the lowest since records began in 1947, according to official figures.
In 1970, wages and salaries were 53.6 per cent of GDP, in 2001 50 per cent, but in 2006, just 45 per cent. Each percentage point is worth $132 billion, so between 2001 and 2006 workers lost $660 billion to the capitalist class. The share allotted to corporate profits increased sharply, from 17.7 per cent in 2000 to 20.9 per cent in 2005.
From 1992 to 2005, the pay of chief executive officers of major companies rose by 186 per cent. The equivalent figure for median hourly wages was 7.2 per cent, leaving the ratio of CEOs' pay to that of the average worker at 262. In the 1960s, the figure was 24.
Between 2000 and 2005, workers improved their productivity by 16.6 per cent, but this only boosted profits to the record levels, not their pay. Over the same period, the median family income fell by 2.9 per cent. New entrants to the labour market fared particularly badly. Average hourly real wages for both college and high school graduates actually fell between 2000 and 2005, and fewer of the jobs they found carried benefits such as healthcare or company pensions.
Meanwhile, a large section of the workforce – the unemployed or those not seeking work – have not benefited from economic growth. Unemployment has remained stubbornly high, with the latest figure at 4.7 per cent compared with 4 per cent at the end of 2000.