>Corporations are unwilling to let non-executive wages become a larger percentage of their costs.
Because they are competing with other companies.
>They are perfectly willing to spend on other things.
No companies generally try to lower costs anywhere it makes sense, in order to compete with other companies that will also do so to compete.
If companies could simply pay magic wages, out of the tens of thousands in the US, don't you think one would buck the trend and suddenly pay awesome wages and attract the best talent and win all the markets?
Either all 10,000 companies are in cahoots, or there are market forces causing a lot of the wages to be similar. Which is more likely? That Apple and Walmart and Rural King are agreeing on wages? Or that each competes against similar companies for workers and sales?