In my micro class, when I cover poverty, incomes and the income distribution, this is something that I mention when talking about incomes over time. Maybe they have not gone up as much as they used to because more of employee compensation has been going to benefits. The trend that Zumbrun discusses has been there before even 2006.
Excerpts:
"In 2006, just over 70% of employer costs went to wages and salaries. That’s now down to 68.3%, the lowest point in the data."
"In the first quarter of 2017, employers spent $24.10 an hour in wages and $11.18 in benefits for every hour of work.
The breakdown on those benefits: $2.91 for health insurance, $2.49 on various types of paid leave (including vacation time, sick pay, holiday pay and personal leave), $1.95 for Social Security and Medicare, and $1.88 on other benefits (including unemployment and disability, life insurance, workers’ compensation payments, and various types of supplemental pay.)
Taking inflation into account, the gap in growth rates between wages and benefits becomes starker. Real wages have grown just 4% in total since 2006, according to this report’s measure. Real benefits have grown 12.4% over that period."
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