Storm's First Hypothesis of Employment Litigation (I will rename it in honor of the person who really came up with this as soon as I find out who it is--I never come up with anything original): slower wage growth means more employment lawsuits. (I have a closely related hypothesis that the overall number of employment lawsuits directly corresponds to the unemployment rate, also surely not original, but I don't know whose idea it is either).
Apropos of that. . .
Steven Greenhouse reports in the New York Times (reg. req'd) that "Even though the economy added 2.2 million jobs in 2004 and produced strong growth in corporate profits, wages for the average worker fell for the year, after adjusting for inflation - the first such drop in nearly a decade."
The article touches on, but doesn't directly tackle the issue that real wages by quintile of income have been more or less flat for 30 years in the lower quintiles, while the higher end 1% or so has had skyrocketing wages. There are a number of possible conclusions from this. On the one hand, it argues for a system that has decoupled work from wages and is inequtiably distributing the fruits of that work; on the other hand, it shows that the class more closely tied to the market system is doing the best. . . plug that into the social security debate.
I report, you decide. (;
