The steady stream of Watergate revelations, President Richard Nixon’s twists and turns to fend off disclosures, the impeachment hearings, and finally an unprecedented resignation—all these riveted the nation’s attention in 1974. Hardly anyone paid attention to a story that seemed no more than a statistical oddity: That year, for the first time since the end of World War II, Americans’ wages declined. 
Since 1947, Americans at all points on the economic spectrum had become a little better off with each passing year. The economy’s rising tide, as President John F. Kennedy had famously said, was lifting all boats. Productivity had risen by 97 percent in the preceding quarter-century, and median wages had risen by 95 percent. As economist John Kenneth Galbraith noted in The Affluent Society, this newly middle-class nation had become more egalitarian. The poorest fifth had seen their incomes increase by 42 percent since the end of the war, while the wealthiest fifth had seen their incomes rise by just 8 percent. Economists have dubbed the period the “Great Compression.” (read the rest of the article)

Related Content
For further reading, click on the other pieces in our "Work in the Age of Anxiety" package:
The Robot Invasion
RICK WARTZMAN OCTOBER 16, 2013
The question that haunted the post-war industrial tech boom of the 1950s is rising again: Have we reached a stage at which technology is destroying more jobs than it's creating?

The Task Rabbit Economy
ROBERT KUTTNER OCTOBER 10, 2013
At the rate things are going, tens of millions of us could end up as temps, contract employees, call-center operators, and the like.

New from your Union. Sweatshirts They are $40 each.  Sizes M-4XL.