Wages have not stagnated. Disposable income adjusted for inflation is up enormously since 1968, while at the same time, the average number of working hours per year is at an all time low. This is according to data collected by the federal reserve.
Even here there is a definitive and deliberate bump right during the beginning of the COVID times. I don't believe that's an artifact. Somehow this analysis is saying people are vastly better in August than they were in February.
I think that "average" in most of the different versions is useless. The millionaire and billionaire classes can be so over-represented they can draw the rest up. It doesn't answer if all of society is actually becoming more well off or just the cream continuing to rise.
Here is a more complete picture, with words and discussion and multiple graphs too: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us...
There’s a story to tell here, but you’re not showing it.
Roughly, the way it "should" work is that if Company A and Company B are in the same industry, and Company A is more productive than Company B, free market forces cause Company A to pay more than Company B, thus improving their ability to compete for workers. Generalize this to an entire industry of competing companies, and then to an entire economy.
Refuting the (willful) abuse of statistics is like trying to refute numerology with reason.