The uncomfortable truth about wage stagnation isn’t that workers aren’t productive enough—it’s that the system has been deliberately rewired to funnel wealth upward, and a growing chorus of frustrated Americans is connecting the dots.
A Reddit discussion on r/Poor recently broke down why wages have stagnated for decades, with users citing everything from corporate greed to immigration policy. One top-voted comment argued that the richest 10% have captured more than all of the nation's wealth gains over "all these decades"—roughly 119%—suggesting they've not only absorbed new economic growth but also drawn from the working class's existing wealth.
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The Profit-First Philosophy That Changed Everything
At the core of wage stagnation sits a fundamental shift in corporate philosophy, multiple Reddit users argued. Companies operate under a fiduciary obligation to maximize shareholder value, which translates to funneling available earnings into stock buybacks and dividend payments rather than wage increases.
“The fundamental issue is that the economic system values profits over people, and increasing wages directly decreases profits,” one commenter wrote. “Companies maintain low payroll costs, exploiting people as much as possible before they get angry.”
Executive compensation data supports this narrative. While wages for rank-and-file workers have remained largely flat when adjusted for inflation, CEO pay packages have exploded—a trend multiple contributors cited as evidence that “trickle-down economics” has failed spectacularly.
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When Supply and Demand Works Against Workers
Beyond corporate decision-making, basic market dynamics play a crucial role. Several commenters pointed to an oversupply of labor as the primary factor keeping wages depressed.
“There is always someone desperate enough to accept a low salary,” one user said, adding that higher costs of living paradoxically help keep wages down by making workers more desperate. “Higher cost of living actually helps keep wages down because it makes people more desperate,” according to a poster.
The replaceability factor looms especially large in low-skilled positions, where employers can easily find replacements at current wage levels. This dynamic, contributors argued, removes any incentive for companies to offer competitive raises.
The Currency Debasement Argument
A significant faction in the discussion blamed monetary policy for eroding wage value. The abandonment of the gold standard in 1971 emerged as a recurring talking point, with some users calculating that minimum wage should exceed $100 per hour today if it had kept pace with currency debasement. Another calculation suggested $181 per hour would be needed to match 1960 purchasing power.
“Government spending that exceeds revenue is covered by ‘printing’ money, which drives up the supply of money and drives down the value of existing currency,” one commenter said, connecting federal deficits to inflation that outpaces wage growth.
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Globalization and Automation Accelerate the Trend
Immigration policy and offshoring received substantial attention as structural forces increased labor supply. Multiple users cited both legal and illegal immigration as creating downward wage pressure, though one dissenter said that wages actually rose substantially during the high-immigration periods of the 1950s and 1960s.
The automation threat loomed even larger in the discussion. Unlike past technological transitions, AI and robotics are seen as fundamentally different—reducing total employment rather than shifting it. “Those jobs are never coming back,” one contributor warned about positions lost to automation.
Decades of Policy Choices
Perhaps most damning, users traced current conditions to deliberate policy decisions dating back to the Reagan administration, which ushered in what they termed the “neoliberal age.” This era saw erosion of labor protections, anti-union legislation, weakened regulatory agencies, and reduced antitrust enforcement—all policies contributors argued were designed to benefit corporate interests at workers’ expense.
The cumulative effect, according to the Reddit discussion, is an economic system that has been systematically rewired over four decades to prioritize capital over labor—leaving workers watching productivity gains flow everywhere except their paychecks.
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