Wage Growth Still Doesn't Look Like the Late 1990s Boom

Ernie Tedeschi has a very useful piece in the NYT Upshot section noting that wage growth is still far below its 1990s boom pace, even though unemployment is actually slightly lower. He notes that the slowdown is pretty much across the board, hitting all demographic groups and industries and occupations. This rules out stories that seek to explain this slowdown as a result of some group of workers lacking the right skills.

He notes three plausible stories that could explain weaker wage growth....