Searching for smart, safe news you can TRUST?
Support safe, smart, REAL journalism. Sign up for our Axios AM & PM newsletters and get smarter, faster.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Denver news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Des Moines news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Minneapolis-St. Paul news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Tampa Bay news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Charlotte news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
Dating back to the 1940s corporate profits and labor rose and fell together, reflecting the general growth of the economy, note economists at the St. Louis Fed:
"The past decade and a half seems to be different, though. Never have corporate profits outgrown employee compensation so clearly and for so long."
What's happening: Capital Economics chief economist Neil Shearing says the change has to do with a shift in incentives for decision makers at large companies.
- "There are a whole raft of structural shifts in the developed world over the last 30 years that have weakened the power of unions ... and basically shifted more of the share of income of labor to corporates and rather than being used for investment it's just jacked up share prices."
- "If you get to a world of more equal distribution of labor it ... would be terrible for the stock market, but it would help to address some of the more social, distributional type issues."
Go deeper: Walmart CEO calls on Congress to increase "lagging" federal minimum wage