*SMLR-Net, the source of selected news on labor and employment relations and human resource management.*

* * Date: August 29, 2012 Source: Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Link: http://bit.ly/OvwwSO Headline/Title:* *Unions, inequality, and faltering middle-class wages

*Summary: *Between 1973 and 2011, the median worker’s real hourly compensation (which includes wages and benefits) rose just 10.7 percent. Most of this growth occurred in the late 1990s wage boom, and once the boom subsided by 2002 and 2003, real wages and compen­sation stagnated for most workers—college graduates and high school graduates alike. This has made the last decade a “lost decade” for wage growth. The last decade has also been characterized by increased wage inequality between workers at the top and those at the middle, and by the continued divergence between overall productivity and the wages or compensation of the typical worker.

* **Author:* Lawrence Mishel

*For the Full Article/Report, See:* http://bit.ly/OvwwSO**