Why wages and productivity look set to diverge further
But less competitive market environments, which are evident in rising mark-ups and have come about for reasons such as “superstar” companies, create conditions for wage and productivity growth to diverge. The flip side of growing company market power is declining worker bargaining power, research suggests. This has weighed on pay growth.
Stephen Machin (2025) Real wage stagnation and productivity stagnation. Oxford Review of Economic Policy
David Autor, David Dorn, Lawrence F Katz, Christina Patterson, John Van Reenen, The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 135, Issue 2, May 2020, Pages 645–709, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaa004
26 July 2026