Then came a string of economic recessions, six in total since the late 1970s, including the Great Recession that stretched on for two painful years after the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008. These were paired with stagnant pay rates: average weekly wages increased only 17.2% in total over the four decades from 1979 to 2019 (an average annual increase of about 0.43%), while the productivity of American workers increased by 72.2% over the same period.
