Briefing | The economics of low wages

When what comes down doesn’t go up

Salaries in rich countries are stagnating even as growth returns, and politicians are paying heed. They may struggle to improve things—and could make them worse

May 2nd 2015

ACCORDING to the rich world’s politicians, economics has a new villain. The modish scoundrel of the past seven years—the immoral banker outwitting inept regulators—has been edged out by a returning blackguard: the tight-fisted boss crushing the hopes of honest workers with miserly pay. In America workers have been demonstrating for higher pay and stronger union rights in the profitable but poorly paying food industry. Hillary Clinton has blasted CEOs who earn 300 times what the average worker does, pledging that her run for the presidency will champion the “everyday Americans” who have the “deck stacked” against them. In Britain Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, has told the electorate that he plans to punish “predatory” capitalists that exploit the low-paid; his electoral rival David Cameron retorts that his Conservatives are the “party of working people”. In Japan Shinzo Abe has sworn to lift salaries, and cajoles and threatens Japanese bosses to deliver on his promise.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “When what comes down doesn’t go up”