Contrary to What You Read in the WSJ, the Shift to Benefits Does Not Explain Sluggish Pay Growth

The Wall Street Journal had an article on slow pay growth in recent years that was headlined, "shift to benefits from pay helps explain sluggish wage growth." The article goes on to explain that one of the reasons that wages are not growing is that an increasing share of compensation is going to benefits like health insurance.

The problem with this explanation is that it is clearly not true. According to data from Bureau of Economic Analysis, wages accounted for 83.2 percent of labor compensa...