Workers' pay rates have barely risen over the last 40 years, while the C-suite have risen by hundreds of percentage points.
Remember, minimal wage = minimal effort.
It is different situation if you are working a summer job and going to Harvard or Stanford or any university, and work real hard in minimum wage job, because when you graduate, you will be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. But for people who are stuck at the $7.25 federal minimum wage to $10 or $12 for life because they have a high school education and that's all they have going for them, don't expect them to think about it the same way that you think about it.
the people stuck in minimum wage jobs long term are those who have no interest in creating value (just keep doing it the hard way). This attitude is a great way to get stuck at minimum wage forever.
There are people that simply are not capable. Not because of desire or attitude, but because of IQ, resources, connections, training, etc.
And, there's only 1000 CEO's at the Fortune 1000. There are 330 million Americans, not all of them can be CEO of a Fortune 1000. If you do the math, 1000 / 330000000 = 0.000003 of US citizens will become CEO of a Fortune 1000 company. This is a metaphor, by the way. What I am saying is that it is a zero sum game and there are only so many high paying wages to go around.
For example, Walmart has 2.3 million workers. How would they all make $120,000 per year, if they all, as you say, have total interest in creating value? Never. It will never happen. What would you say if you were the store manager, or district manager, or regional manager of Walmart and every single employee came up to YOU and said, "Hey, I want to create value at Walmart, and want to earn $120,000 per year. What do we all need to do?" And nobody wants to be the door greeter, nobody wants to be the cashier, but every single one wants to be the store manager? And you cannot find one single person that wants to be cashier, they all want to be store manager? Walmart would all of a sudden have 0 employees, and then 0 customers because they would be out of business.
You see, you and most people reading these remarks are in rarified company. Smart. Talented. Capable. Someone who graduates from Harvard or Standford or MIT literally has the world at their feet and can literally almost do anything they set their mind to. Because they have the actual IQ and resources, and connections to do so. But there's only so many spots open every year at elite schools, and 99.99999999% of the USA or world will never, ever get a whiff of those schools. But not everyone is that way. You'll never get someone who has Down's Syndrome to run a Fortune 1000 company, and I'm not being down on those with Downs. It's just reality.
Another example: If you are raised on the south side of Chicago, in the baddest part of town, and if you're raised down there, you better just beware, that you'll run into Leroy Brown and he will put you and your peers to work selling crack cocaine and you will never, never, never get into Harvard, except for some very rare outlier. And you will think it is normal because you didn't grow up white in Los Altos Hills or Atherton, CA where you learned completely different things growing up. I'm sure that NOBODY reading this would want to change places with a black boy or girl growing up in south Chicago.
So the actual increase was 24.6% over 35 years assuming 2019 wasn’t some outlying peak and 1984 wasn’t an unusually bad year. We can check 1984 by going another 20 years to 1964 and the median household income was 6,600 which is $54,430.20 in 2019 or an increase of 26.2% in 55 years. Can’t prove 2019 is also an outlier, but that “40%” increase in 10 years suggests it likely is.
PS: And yes end years matter. Inflation adjusted median household income increased form 1964 to 2009 by 6.6% in 45 years. Perhaps things have fundamentally changed in the last 10 years, but it’s not likely.
Workers' pay rates have barely risen over the last 40 years, while the C-suite have risen by hundreds of percentage points.
Remember, minimal wage = minimal effort.
It is different situation if you are working a summer job and going to Harvard or Stanford or any university, and work real hard in minimum wage job, because when you graduate, you will be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. But for people who are stuck at the $7.25 federal minimum wage to $10 or $12 for life because they have a high school education and that's all they have going for them, don't expect them to think about it the same way that you think about it.