Reconciling growth in median hourly compensation and productivity growth, 1973-2011
| Sub-periods | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973-79 | 1979-95 | 1995-00 | 2000-11 | 1973-11 | |
| A. Basic trends (annual growth) | |||||
| Median hourly wage | -0.26 | -0.15 | 1.50 | 0.05 | 0.10 |
| Median hourly compensation | 0.56 | -0.17 | 1.13 | 0.35 | 0.27 |
| Average hourly compensation | 0.59 | 0.55 | 2.10 | 0.95 | 0.87 |
| Productivity | 1.08 | 1.29 | 2.33 | 1.88 | 1.56 |
| Productivity-median compensation gap | 0.52 | 1.46 | 1.21 | 1.53 | 1.30 |
| B. Explanatory factors (percentage point contribution) | |||||
| Inequality of compensation | 0.02 | 0.72 | 0.97 | 0.59 | 0.61 |
| Shifts in labor’s share | 0.03 | 0.23 | -0.40 | 0.69 | 0.25 |
| Divergence of consumer and output prices | 0.46 | 0.51 | 0.64 | 0.24 | 0.44 |
| Total | 0.52 | 1.46 | 1.22 | 1.52 | 1.29 |
| C. Relative contribution to gap (percent of gap) | |||||
| Inequality of compensation | 4.8% | 49.6% | 80.0% | 38.9% | 46.9% |
| Shifts in labor’s share | 5.5% | 15.4% | -32.5% | 45.3% | 19.0% |
| Divergence of consumer and output prices | 89.7% | 35.0% | 52.5% | 15.8% | 34.0% |
| Total | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
