US workers are hugely productive and aren’t getting paid for it.
The consequences of not restoring the link — and, thus, a rising standard of living for most workers — are grim, and point to either persistent sluggish growth or recurring asset bubbles. But to accomplish this, Mishel argues, will require divisive policy shifts impossible in the current political climate. “It is hard to see how reestablishing a link between productivity and pay can occur without restoring decent and improved labor standards, restoring the minimum wage to a level corresponding to half the average wage (as it was in the late 1960s), and making real the ability of workers to obtain and practice collective bargaining.”