First off I would just like to say fuck his digital signature. Now that we've got that out of the way: Capitalism didn't suddenly spring forth as an inauguration gift to Eisenhower. Almost all of the graphs are from 1950-ish onward. Wind the clock back farther, and 1950 looks less benchmarky and more outliery.(pdf warning). There's a rant that could go here that sounds a bit like: something something nlrb something something wildcat something something something West Virginia.Our leading indicator for wages normally provides a 15 month advanced warning of changes in wages. It is pretty good and all the ingredients are the same ones that have accurately worked for decades, yet the relationship has broken down.
There is an extremely high correlation historically between the index of the number of strikes in the US with the wage growth of workers. Today, strikes are extremely rare, and this in part explains why wages are so low.