Of course there's a gap between productivity and wages. It's called profit. If a company doesn't make some profit off an employee's endeavors, why would they hire him/her?
And if this gap, as you call it, is too high for the American workforce in general, for millions and millions of people, it would mean there is tremendous money to be made by companies willing to pay higher and so capture a portion of this surplus.
The real reason that Americans are so exploited economically is because they lack the ability to reason about economics and are easily fooled by fallacious claims that benefit the most powerful at their own expense. The minimum wage is just a minor example among countless schemes designed to make the poor, working, middle, and even upper middle classes feel they are being aided by government policies while they are actually being copiously robbed in broad daylight.
And if this gap, as you call it, is too high for the American workforce in general, for millions and millions of people, it would mean there is tremendous money to be made by companies willing to pay higher and so capture a portion of this surplus.
The real reason that Americans are so exploited economically is because they lack the ability to reason about economics and are easily fooled by fallacious claims that benefit the most powerful at their own expense. The minimum wage is just a minor example among countless schemes designed to make the poor, working, middle, and even upper middle classes feel they are being aided by government policies while they are actually being copiously robbed in broad daylight.