These recent increases for low-income workers, however, have not reversed the rise in wage inequality that occurred during the 1980s and early-1990s when the gap in wages between those at the top and the bottom of the distribution was widening considerably.
Nonetheless, the leveling off in that disturbing trend is an encouraging sign of what can be achieved if we can maintain strong and dynamic labor markets accompanied by low inflation. Of course, we need also to consider trends in wealth, which, more fundamentally than earnings or income, represent a measure of the ability of households to consume.