CONCEPT
The Productivity-Pay Gap
The divergence between American productivity growth (rising steadily) and median worker compensation (stagnant since approximately 1973) — the structural mechanism by which productivity gains flow to capital rather than workers.
The productivity-pay gap is one of the most empirically documented features of the American economy since the early 1970s. Productivity per worker-hour has continued to rise; median worker compensation has stagnated in real terms for five decades. The gap represents the redirection of productivity gains from workers to owners of capital, and it is the structural mechanism that converts any technological productivity gain — including AI's — into firm profit rather than worker income or worker leisure. Schor's framework treats the gap as the empirical demonstration that the work-spend cycle's second stage (capture as income rather than time) has itself been weakened: even the income component of the capture has been constrained, with productivity flowing to shareholders rather than to wages.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The gap's magnitude is substantial. Between 1973 and 2020, American productivity per worker-hour roughly doubled while real median hourly compensation grew by approximately 15%. The remaining productivity gains were distributed to capital owners (through