I agree with UR, it is widely recognized that using the median is the most suitable method of averaging wage data.
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'02 - '04 US productivity best for over 50 years
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Re: Productivity vs. Standard of Living
Originally posted by pchang
Wage increases are not always the measure of increases in your standard of living. You could pay $2000 for a top of the line PC in 1995 and the same now in 2005. With inflation (~3%), the 1995 PC would cost $2680 in today's dollars. In addition, the 2005 PC is more than twice as capable than the 1995 PC. So, if your wage in 1995 was $15/hour and you received no raises to date, you would say that your buying power and thus, standard of living has decreased over 30% because of inflation. But, if we look at what you can buy with those dollars today vs. what you could buy in 1995, your standard of living (at least with respect to computers) would have gone up. Many things we buy today are much better (and at the same price) as earlier models. Many things (like food) are not. Thus, the standard of living calculation is much more complicated and there is no simple way to calculate the answer to the question: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
So any method using national accounts deflators will already take account of the matters you raise.19th Century Liberal, 21st Century European
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UR and Kid do some self pwnage because they don't read carefully.“It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
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Originally posted by DanS
Hourly wages grew 4.2% in 2004, 4.1% in 2003, and 3.3% in 2002.
After subtracting inflation, hourly wages grew 1.5% in 2004, 1.7% in 2003, and 1.6% in 2002.
The report again showed that wage growth wasn't keeping up with inflation. The seasonally adjusted average hourly wage rose 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $15.88 an hour, in line with economists' consensus forecast.
During the last 12 months, average hourly wages have risen 2.6 percent, while average weekly wages are up 2.3 percent. Both gains are less than the 3.3 percent increase in overall consumer prices during 2004.
Real wage declines in 2004I drank beer. I like beer. I still like beer. ... Do you like beer Senator?
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh
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I don't know the modifications of the hourly earnings figure that the BLS uses from the one report to the other.
Edit: Ah, I see where the difference is. The one which you quote is real hourly wages. The one which the productivity report quotes is real hourly compensation, and includes health care, employer contributions to pensions, etc.Last edited by DanS; February 4, 2005, 22:49.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891
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Australia now has the best productivity in the world as measured by the OECD - a modern miracle.Any views I may express here are personal and certainly do not in any way reflect the views of my employer. Tis the rising of the moon..
Look, I just don't anymore, okay?
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Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Australia now has the best productivity in the world as measured by the OECD - a modern miracle.
Last time I did a measurement of OECD productivity (GDP per hour worked) Australia came in at 15% below the US, and way below France (22% above the US)19th Century Liberal, 21st Century European
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El freako - couldn't find the reference but here's a couple links - we're certainly working the longest hours in the OECD, which is remarkable because Australia was once renowned for the opposite.
http://www.brainbox.com.au/members/b...256d8e0036338e!OpenDocument
Any views I may express here are personal and certainly do not in any way reflect the views of my employer. Tis the rising of the moon..
Look, I just don't anymore, okay?
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