In the United States real wages kept rising through most of the period from 1896 to 1975.21 The cause was to be found in a combination of union activity, minimum wage laws, productivity gains, and social welfare legislation.22 During the early 1970s, that trend reversed. Real wages fell sharply after 1973, dropped again from 1978 to 1982, and declined once more from 1984 to 1996.
