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Tuesday's post, 40% Of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage, was updated with this chart:

The chart shows that wages used to go up as productivity went up, but in the 1970s they decoupled. Productivity kept going up but wages stagnated.

Now, here's another chart. This chart shows that financial-sector and non-financial-sector compensation used to rise together, but in the late 70's / early 80's they decoupled. Financial-sector compensation took off, while non-financial-sector compensation did not.

Correlation isn't causation, but just sayin'...

In the post, 40% Of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage, I wrote this about that:

This means the gains went ... somewhere else. See if you can guess who got them? (Hint: it's the 1%; this is one driver of the terrible income and wealth inequality.) This breakoff of wages from productivity growth is partly (largely?) the result of trade agreements that pit Americans against exploited workers in non-democracies. This weakened the bargaining power of unions, moved factories and industries out of the country, devastated entire regions of our country -- and gave the giant multinational corporations, Wall Street and the billionaires the leverage they needed...

(*Click charts for sources.)
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