Essay Archive - U.S. Wage Trends
U.S. Wage Trends
The microeconomic picture of the U.S. has changed immensely since 1973, and the
trends are proving to be consistently downward for the nation's high school
graduates and high school drop-outs. “Of all the reasons given for the wage
squeeze – international competition, technology, deregulation, the decline of
unions and defense cuts – technology is probably the most critical. It has
favored the educated and the skilled,” says M. B. Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of
U.S. News & World Report (7/31/95). Since 1973, wages adjusted for inflation
have declined by about a quarter for high school dropouts, by a sixth for high
school grad....
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