This one is looking better with the 2006 results now counted. More people are working and working harder than ever. Productivity is up while wages after adjustment for inflation are flat across the past ten years. Until 2006 it looked like we were losing ground even while productivity grew.

The chart shows inflation adjusted wage growth of 6.5% over ten years. In this same timeframe productivity was up 49%. As the world catches up and wealth is distributed to more of the Earth's population, pressure will continue to required Americans to work even more efficiently for the same pay in the future.

Bureau of Labor Statistics - non supervisory
MidYear	Wages/week		WageIncr	Inflation	Diff	Productivity
1996	$412.74		3.20%	2.93%	0.27%	3.8%
1997	431.25		4.29%	2.34%	1.95%	5.4%
1998	448.04		3.75%	1.55%	2.20%	5.5%
1999	462.49		3.12%	2.19%	0.93%	4.4%
2000	480.41		3.73%	3.38%	0.35%	4.4%
2001	493.2		2.59%	2.83%	-0.24%	1.5%
2002	506.07		2.54%	1.59%	0.95%	7.0%
2003	517.3		2.17%	2.27%	-0.10%	6.2%
2004	528.36		2.09%	2.68%	-0.59%	1.8%
2005	543.65		2.81%	3.39%	-0.58%	4.8%
2006	568.16		4.60%	3.20%	1.40%	4.0%

Of course we are using the government's inflation numbers in the above analysis. If the government is underreporting inflation then of course these numbers are affected.