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Comment by adam_arthur | Hacker News Reader

"Real" wages are driven by the "real" supply and demand of labor, not by nominal numbers.

If the number of qualified workers increases significantly, you will end up with lower real wages. There were three major factors increasing labor supply around this time in the US. Immigration from Mexico, women continuing to enter the labor force, and reduction in demand/increase in (global) supply for lower skill labor via globalization of manufacturing

Not casting any judgment on whether these things are good, but they are far more likely to be the primary factor than inflation.

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> women continuing to enter the labor force.

One thing that's occurred to me recently is that demands for a 4 day working week seem entirely reasonable in the context that the labour force has, if not quite doubled, dramatically increased (due to more women participating) over the last few decades (and that time has been taken away from time that was previously available for the completion of domestic chores).

This is the solution to the "two-income trap".

Wouldn't a 2.5 day work week actually be the solution to the "two-income-trap"?

but you would be out-competed by people who work 5 days. The reason things like housing is expensive is because there are lots of people willing to pay higher. This implies that those people _have_ become wealthier. You would not hear them complain about being poorer (or it's an insincere form of complaint).

Oh look, enough time in the week for 2 jobs!

That only works if it is a global change in work practices.

I don't think that's true. We already have significantly varied working hours between countries. China has 996. The US has a 40 hour standard work week and the culture is such that people often work longer hours. Whereas in Europe 35 or 37.5 hours or even less is common. Different countries have different numbers of public holidays, etc.

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