Workers' slice of US income hits 43% — lowest since the Great Depression
Wages and salaries have fallen to roughly 43% of U.S. gross domestic income, their lowest share since the Depression era, per a chart from Fed data that's been making rounds. It isn't a 57% pay cut — the figure excludes employer-paid benefits — but the long-term trend is real: productivity has outpaced pay since the 1970s. The popular culprit? Nixon severing the dollar's tie to gold in 1971.