Workers Share of Productivity Gains

       In the February issue of The Electrical Worker,  the journal of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,  union president Ed Hill makes an interesting point.  He says that in America, from the end of WWII to 1970,  there were across the board income gains for all groups, because gains in productivity were shared by workers.   (Actually,  this trend for broadly shared income growth goes clear back to the 1870s.)   But since 1970, real wages have remained stagnant because though American workers have continued to increase their productivity, they have not claimed a share of that increase.  If they had continued to claim the same share of their own productivity gains as before, then the median household income in America would be about $90,000 instead of $50,000.  That's where the rising inequality is coming from.