Productivity and hourly pay grew faster when corporate tax rates were higher: Statutory corporate tax rate and 5-year average of productivity and real hourly pay growth, 1953–2016

Year Statutory corporate income tax rate Real average hourly compensation growth (2016 dollars) Net productivity growth
1953 52.00% 4.17% 3.91%
1954 52.00% 3.25% 3.94%
1955 52.00% 3.31% 3.13%
1956 52.00% 3.97% 2.55%
1957 52.00% 3.84% 2.50%
1958 52.00% 2.87% 2.21%
1959 52.00% 3.08% 2.65%
1960 52.00% 2.60% 2.15%
1961 52.00% 2.10% 2.79%
1962 52.00% 2.24% 3.03%
1963 52.00% 2.44% 3.35%
1964 50.00% 2.24% 3.25%
1965 48.00% 2.33% 3.55%
1966 52.80% 2.29% 3.55%
1967 52.80% 1.89% 2.97%
1968 52.80% 2.03% 2.86%
1969 52.80% 2.04% 2.24%
1970 49.20% 1.74% 1.87%
1971 48.00% 2.08% 2.01%
1972 48.00% 2.92% 2.32%
1973 48.00% 2.41% 2.21%
1974 48.00% 1.41% 1.77%
1975 48.00% 1.16% 1.95%
1976 48.00% 0.84% 1.75%
1977 48.00% 0.20% 1.43%
1978 48.00% 0.49% 1.12%
1979 46.00% 0.69% 1.50%
1980 46.00% 0.19% 0.87%
1981 46.00% -0.22% 0.75%
1982 46.00% -0.56% 0.20%
1983 46.00% -0.78% 0.61%
1984 46.00% -0.67% 1.11%
1985 46.00% -0.24% 1.63%
1986 46.00% -0.03% 1.61%
1987 40.00% -0.34% 2.04%
1988 34.00% -0.48% 1.65%
1989 34.00% -0.35% 1.27%
1990 34.00% -0.44% 1.21%
1991 34.00% -0.58% 0.96%
1992 34.00% -0.17% 1.61%
1993 35.00% -0.05% 1.43%
1994 35.00% 0.01% 1.46%
1995 35.00% 0.05% 1.17%
1996 35.00% 0.10% 1.51%
1997 35.00% 0.19% 1.05%
1998 35.00% 0.63% 1.40%
1999 35.00% 0.88% 1.70%
2000 35.00% 1.12% 2.20%
2001 35.00% 1.40% 2.02%
2002 35.00% 1.58% 2.32%
2003 35.00% 1.32% 2.59%
2004 35.00% 0.93% 2.66%
2005 35.00% 0.74% 2.52%
2006 35.00% 0.48% 2.31%
2007 35.00% 0.23% 1.86%
2008 35.00% 0.01% 1.20%
2009 35.00% 0.88% 1.07%
2010 35.00% 1.15% 1.32%
2011 35.00% 0.88% 1.22%
2012 35.00% 0.55% 1.18%
2013 35.00% 0.65% 1.21%
2014 35.00% -0.05% 0.90%
2015 35.00% 0.12% 0.41%
2016 35.00% 0.58% 0.42%

Source: Productivity is the 5-year average annual change in total economy productivity (TEP) measure using unpublished data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Pay growth measures real compensation of production and nonsupervisory workers, using data from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program of the BLS and Table 7.8 from the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA),  as described in Bivens and Mishel (2015).

View the underlying data on epi.org.