Right, but this one is easy to push back on. If only men work, and most men need to support a family then the wages that all men are willing to accept is higher. Once families have two breadwinners, both men and women are willing to accept lower wages. The average household income is $55k but the average two income household makes $100k which I would hypothesize is the real growth area. The 'middle class factory worker' making $80-90k lifestyle now takes two people to realize.
But since the 2 people are creating much more material value, this explanation would mean that a much bigger % of it was going to profits instead of wages.
I think the decline of unions and globalization are more credible explanations.
I think it is a combination of all those. It's just an overlooked cause. I think many avoid it entirely because they believe it demeans women. As I said in another post, more capable about came to the fore in much large droves than the US could ever take at one time from immigrants. We now had a massive surplus of labor. This would drive wages down.
With this, the collapse the union base, and add new cheaper labor in the rest of the world. Also enact free trade policies that didn't tax imports that used essentially slave labor to make their products.
The end result is depressed wages from without and within. So too automation rendering a portion of this pool redundant.
