The New York Times
The Agenda: Take-home pay
Take-home pay for many American households has stagnated in recent years, thanks to a combination of slow economic growth and rising inequality. Below is a list of 14 frequently cited potential causes of the stagnation. Which do you consider most important, only modestly important and and not significant?
1. Automation and computers:
Although U.S. manufacturing output remains the highest in the world, manufacturing employment has fallen more than a third since 1980; meanwhile, computer networks have allowed highly skilled workers to become more productive and earn more.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
2. Global competition:
Hundreds of millions of people have joined the global market in recent decades, and work can more easily cross borders than in the past.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
3. Demographics:
The share of the U.S. population that is of working age is falling, leaving fewer potential workers and fewer potential entrepreneurs, and the rate of female labor participation is no longer rising.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
4. Deregulation:
Many parts of the economy, including finance, have been partially deregulated, giving companies more flexibility in how they operate (including how they donate to political campaigns).
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
5. The slowdown in educational attainment:
The United States has the most educated 60-year-olds in the world but not the most educated 30-year-olds, 20-year-olds or 10-year-olds.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
6. Family structure:
Single-parent families have become much more common, shrinking average household size and also creating broader issues.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
7. Fiscal policy:
Effective federal tax rates have fallen much more for top-earning households than for everyone else, potentially affecting both pre- and post-tax income, while the share of entitlements that flow to the poor has shrunk.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
8. Rising health costs:
After a slowdown in the late 1990s, health costs began growing rapidly again, leaving less money for employers to spend on raises.
Very important
Modestly important
Little or no relevance
9. Immigration:
Large numbers of relatively uneducated, unskilled workers have moved to the United States, often competing with lower-income native-born workers, while immigration of high-skills workers remains less common.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
10. An innovation plateau:
The economy has struggled recently to produce breakthrough technologies that employ large numbers of people, perhaps partly because of a slowdown in government and private spending on research and other long-term investment.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
11. The falling minimum wage:
The federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, is more than 30 percent lower than it was in 1968, after taking inflation into account.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
12. Changing cultural norms:
Corporate executives in past decades often voluntarily accepted less than the maximum pay they could have won from their board, and many executives viewed themselves as having a deep responsibility to the cities where their companies were based.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
13. The tax code and regulation:
Government is more complex -- and, in some respects, larger -- than it was in the past, forcing businesses to spend more time worrying about policy than in the past.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
14. The decline of unions:
A smaller share of workers are in unions, directly hurting their bargaining power and indirectly affecting pay for many workers not in unions.
Very important
Modestly important
Marginally or not important
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