The NYT reports that wage rises in the US are still falling behind inflation. Absolutely true. However, total labour compensation is rising faster than inflation. The problem, if a problem there is, is that benefits costs are rising, meaning that while companies are paying more for their labour, ahead of the inflation rate, the amount in paychecks is not keeping up with inflation.

Just a silghtly mordant thought on this. If, as is suggested, Social Security is fixed by modest tax increases, this will only make this problem worse. Most people only see one side of the FICA payments, the so called employees’. But the company sees both sides, and counts both sides, employer’s and employees’, as part of the cost of employing labour. So, we fix SS by those modest tax rises and wages will fall even further behind inflation.

Obviously a good Democratic policy that.