Why is unemployment at a 16-year low and job openings are at an all-time high, yet wage growth has remained surprisingly sluggish?

1. Because the nature of the available jobs has been changing. If a middle class job goes away and 3 minimum wage, part time jobs are created, then you see exactly what your post title says. Also many industries are stridently unwilling to consider paying what the market determines is fair compensation, then they piss and moan about unqualified applicants. Any job will be filled if the compensation is equivalent to the work. Business got addicted to the labor pool of the recession, and now that it's improved (for the workers) they are loathe to increase their overhead by competing for qualified workers.
   — VorpalPen


2. Because you eliminate a full-time employee and hire three part time employees so you save on salary and no longer are required to provide benefits.
   — remarqer


3. Because companies don't want to pay their workers fairly.
   — the-electric-monk






4. Unemployment is down, and job openings are up - but they haven't been that way long enough, or drastically enough. Wage growth is a lag measure that happens as a result of increased competition. All the signs are good but it will take time.
   — Idunnowhy2


5. Because the people at the top are greedy fuckers, and in order for them to have more the rest of us have to get along on less.
   — homevp


6. Some bad explanations in here. In an economic recovery, wage growth always lags behind other factors. During a major economic recession, companies go into survival mode. They cut non-essential roles, and expect more out of their employees for less money. Because most companies are laying people off, there is a huge applicant pool to choose from, and it is easy to find a qualified applicant to do a job for a relatively low wage. Average wages naturally drop. As the economy starts to recover, businesses tend to be cautious. It's human nature to he overconfident when things are going well, and anxious when they aren't. The company probably got burned pretty hard by the recession and they don't want to let that happen again. Economics isn't easy to interpret either. There's always uncertainty. If the indicators are up it looks good, but if they expand or hire and slip back into recession, they'll get screwed. So even if a company has a few good quarters in a row, they won't immediately start hiring and expanding. Naturally, corporate profits are the first thing to rise. Some companies might be greedy, but in most cases it's more about risk management than greed. If the economic recovery continues, unemployment will drop next. The company is doing well, confidence is growing, it's time to hire some new people and try to regrow the business. There are still a lot of applicants to choose from, and the job market has been bad for a while. You can find a qualified applicant for pretty cheap. Unemployment drops, but wages are still low. If this continues for a few years, the applicant pool shrinks. It's not easy to find qualified applicants anymore. You post a job, but a lot of the applicants don't seem like good fits for the role, and so many other companies are trying to hire that good applicants have options to choose from. This is where we are now. Lots of job openings, low unemployment, and wage growth is still fairly low. To fill those positions, companies will start to offer higher salaries. The qualified employees who accepted lower wages immediately following the recession will stop being so nervous about the job market. They'll feel more comfortable asking for a raise at work, and leaving the company if they aren't willing to pay enough. Wages will grow. It's the final stage of an economic recovery. Companies don't pay their employees out of charity. They pay them because they earn money for the company. And employees don't work because they enjoy it. They work to get paid.
   — Tgs91






7. As long as employers all refuse to raise wages, people will eventually cave and take jobs. Can't live without income.
   — humboldt77


8. When they say Unemployment is at a 16 year low, what they aren't advertising is the fact that the employment type is drastically different. A couple of decades ago if you were employed, it was probably a full-time position for 35 to 45 hours a week on average. Most positions these days are part time. Often no more than 12 hours per week on average. Which means there are more people than ever having to work 2 to 3 jobs at shitty wages just to try and barely make ends meet. So employment rates are misleading and tenuous at best. The employers don't have to do the extras for full time employees and the government gets to say more people are employed. If the government mandates minimum wages go up to much to fast all that will do is force employers to find more ways to cut hours and costs. After all, the business owner just cares about the business. That's just how it works. So minimum wage does go up (we're about to get several wage hikes here in Ontario). But it's slow and unfortunately not on par with inflation.
   — NimrodOfNumph


9. Reading these comments, I have a question. So Ben and Jerry's is a fairly progressive company ( god bless them, I'd love to support them but their Ice cream is horrendous) and they have a 1:5 ratio pay. Which means the guy who gets paid the most isn't making more than 5x what the lowest earner is making. So if they're paying the lowest worker minimum wage (7.25) the highest paid worker wouldn't make more than 5x that amount (36.25). I actually think the lowest earner are making $18-$19 this way Would using this policy of theirs and making it law help out the country? Most people are against minimum wage increase because it affects small businesses. But with this mandatory 1:5 ratio pay. I feel like it would be a good way to bring the wealth back to the middle and lower class without affecting small businesses. Is this a good idea? I'm curious to people's opinions Edit: honestly it doesn't even need to be 1:5 it could be 1:6, 1:7, etc. I think we need a way to counter multibillionaire companies from using slave wages and subsidizing the burden of these wages to taxpayers through the form of government assistance
   — Bezere






10. The plain truth is businesses feel no moral obligation to share the profits of its wealth with its workers. Thats why they pay the minimum amount they can get away with and have tax payers subsidize the underpaid worker through government assistance instead of paying a fair wage. Lots of people are anti minimum wage increase but also anti government assistance. Im like well if you dont allow people to be paid a "LIVING" wage then YOU are going to pay for it in taxes in the form of welfare section 8 and food stamps and the business will pay NOTHING lol your in favor of paying more taxes so a business can underpay its workers? The minimum wage was created to stop bussinesses from paying a wage that would not keep up with the cost of living and was like many laws something that was one day decided would be ignored. Thats why trickle down economics is stupid to me because its empowering one entity and "hoping" for it to place that money back into the economy its dumb when you can empower multiple people who will put back into the economy not hoard wealth. Wages have not increased because businesses that make enormous profits have no legal obligation to share them so they dont its that simple. I like that law in Switzerland where the owner of a company by law cannot gross more than x amount its lowest paid workers wages annually. I think they had a law like that I found it very creative. I like a lot of things about the swiss government if I was fluent in their language I would go there.
    — Solitude_is_power


11. Everyone wants experience in my, uhh, experience? How the fuck do I get experience if you won’t even give me a chance!? It’s probably my redundancy that does me no favours though, truth be told.
    — FabioRodriquez


12. Unemployment doesn't typically factor Underemployment or those that no longer are seeking because of critical issues or failure otherwise in searching. So it's never "relevant" to really just talk about Unemployment rates. Job openings are high but that doesn't mean the salary for them is high or that they're in the right fields or that anyone will get selected for them. And wage growth doesn't match inflation because there's no push in government to do so likely because of money in politics.
    — Delsana






13. Because unions are at an all time low. Divided we beg, united we bargain.
    — TheyCallMeShitHead