In her most recent Washington Post column Catherine Rampell lists several reasons for slow wage growth:
- Slack in the labor market.
- Demographic change (high wage older workers are being supplanted by lower wage younger workers).
- Growth in non-wage income.
- Declining unionization, increasing outsourcing and subcontracting.
I’ll mention another: fear. This isn’t the good old days. One doesn’t get a raise automatically. Nowadays it is far more common to receive an increase in wages when changing jobs rather than just by doing the same job. But not enough new jobs are being created and people are afraid to leave their old jobs. Fear explains why people are reluctant to ask for raises, too.
Calling all crystal ballers…..
Who wants to venture what a common warehouse worker makes in western PA? And if you guess, is your number too high or too low and why.
I’d be interested in seeing what someone more knowledgeable than I has to say about this (I cheated—I looked it up).
Do you want to divulge it, or let someone else take a stab?
Obviously, this is real world knowledge I have because of a business we own. We are well aware of market wages.
Here’s a hint. It makes the $15/hr min wage effort look foolish.
Unsurprisingly, no one wants to venture a guess. Better to deal in the abstract I guess.
In western PA its $20/hr +/- $19ish if you push a broom. $21 (or more) if you drive a fork lift. And they are hard to find. You may have to up the ante. And many work for a short period, become eligible for govt bennies again, and then are gone.
Don’t get me started on truck drivers.
Western PA isn’t exactly a high cost of living area.