Raise...

The U.S. economy is behaving mysteriously.   The unemployment rate hit a decade low, average hourly earnings grew just 2.5%  compared with  4% before .

The Phillips curve is effectively dead. In textbooks.   As unemployment rises wage growth falls. Currently the correlation has been so inconsistent that it looks more like a Jackson Pollock drip painting or the footprints of a staggering drunk. 

It just makes sense that a tight labor market will eventually push up wages.

Some fall back on the explanation that workers’ bargaining power has weakened. The decline of unions is a crucial factor,  The Bureau of Labor Statistics says fewer than 11 percent of wage and salary workers were union members last year, down from 20 percent in 1983.

Globalization has weakened the leverage of American workers  by shifting production where wages are cheaper. Workers are unfairly competing on a global scale,”.

Then with such pressures, workers are content with what they’re earning. Employees are more willing to settle for small raises if  inflation remains low, or a threat of moving the job somewhere else is reduced.  No wonder many are against globalization.

Finally, companies are doing more with the workers they have by implementing advanced technologies.