A study of the history of wages back through the years indicates clearly that when the cost-of-living rises appreciably wages have shortly been adjusted upward also.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The rise or fall of wages is common to all states of society, whether it be the stationary, the advancing, or the retrograde state.
For a long time many believed that there would be an automatic adjustment and counted on a rapid increase in the wages of the emerging nations, on our advances in technology and the costs of transport preventing disruption. But this reassuring analysis is out of date.
My own experience in the third world was that even if people started to make more money, the cost of living and housing increased often faster than the wages.
When we lift the wage floor, it not only betters the lives of those whose wages are directly affected, it also lifts the economy as a whole.
If you look at the US economy over the last 15-20 years wages have been stagnating or even declining.
In addition to joblessness, of course, by the working of supply and demand, when you have a larger number of people unemployed, wages do not rise at the normal level, so that we had last year a drop in real wages.
I think it's much more important to keep people in work than have pay rises.
This government has always said increasing pay is something for something.
Median wages of production workers, who comprise 80 percent of the workforce, haven't risen in 30 years, adjusted for inflation.
The cost of living is going up and the chance of living is going down.