Can someone explain why worker productivity increases would ever enrich the worker? This sounds like a Golden Age fallacy. What forces in a capitalist system lead to paying workers more? Workers are not entitled to the value they create, they are just compensated for their labor. It would have to be competition from other employers who are paying more (because they too are making more money for what they are paying workers, but have strategically decided to apply it to raising salaries). However, if you have an oversupply of workers and a shortage of jobs, this dynamic does not really exist.