US / Labor’s Share of Income is around a 50-year low

Profits as a share of income are at or near record highs while the compensation share is around a 50-year low.

That trend deserves a closer look. The chart below plots the total compensation share of national income, along with just the wage share (that is, excluding what employers pay for workers’ pensions, health coverage and social insurance).  The wage share has been coming down faster than the overall compensation share, initially because more workers were getting more of their pay in nonwage benefits, though more recently, employers have been shedding health and pension benefits (the share of the population with employer-provided health coverage has declined over the last decade from about 73 percent to 63 percent).

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via Why Labor’s Share of Income Is Falling – NYTimes.com.