I attribute a lot of the stagnating wages (and the median net wealth levels) the last few decades, to rising costs in housing, healthcare and education.

Healthcare is obviously dramatically expensive in the US, with per capita costs about twice that of the next highest spending nations. For most employed Americans, that ends up becoming a $5,000 to $10,000 'perk' in their compensation (which isn't counted in wage figures). If you make $50,000 at a full-time job (the median figure for full-time), you're liking getting a health insurance plan that is worth upwards of 10% of your salary.

Buffett likened healthcare costs to a monster that is eating the US economy. It's spot on. There's a trillion dollars per year there in excess costs, that if even half went into labor competition, would do wonders for giving wages a jolt at the median.

I don't have a handy link, but I recall a while back seeing a graph that showed the total value of compensation (wages + benefits) steadily increasing while base wages stagnated. Almost all the increase was due to the increasing value of employer provided health insurance.

It might be this:

https://i.imgur.com/rNa2smF.gif

Which can be lined up with this chart, showing the extreme cost inflation in healthcare:

https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/8...