On Wed, 8 Jan 2003, Doug Henwood wrote:
> The U.S. was about the
> only rich country where real wages fell over a sustained period
> (1973-95), but they've been rising for the last 7 years.
Median household income's been declining since 2001, according to historical data at the U. S. census web site. I know household income is not the same thing as wages, but I think it's a much better indicator of the economic well being of typical Americans.
It's also important to keep in mind that household income would be far lower if people worked as many hours a year as people did in the U. S. 30 years ago or in W. Europe today. To put it bluntly, the median household works its ass off to financially tread water. So the trend for workers isn't quite as happy as Doug implies above.
Miles