Wages Flatline While Unemployment Goes Down

People in the workforce, particularly those who have come out of college in a time when the economy has been floundering, know what it is like to search for work under such conditions. In 2015, they are starting to see a ray of light, though that glow is larger in some fields than others, but they are not noticing all the benefits of a thriving economy yet.

Wages Continue to Flatline

When the economy is in a recession, people generally know that finding a job is going to be a challenging task, and they likely realize that the wages they receive are going to be lower than normal as well. However, as the economy starts to pick back up and positions open up in the marketplace, the workforce also expects that they are going to start making more money. However, in many fields, wages have not increased. The cost of living has though, and individuals are starting to wonder why they are not making more money and when the changes are going to end.

Nervous Businesses

Employees are not the only people who suffer from the economy is a mess; the owners of companies do as well. Therefore, many of them are nervous about the economy. While it is improving, it is still in a recovery state. They worry that if they begin to pay their employees more money, they will find themselves in a desperate situation if the economy starts to rapidly decline again. Once the economy overall, or at least their niche of the economy, has enjoyed a longer lasting level of stability, they may be more likely to increase wages.

Complacent Employees

The owners are not the only ones responsible for the flatline of wages. In the past, asking for a raise was a fairly commonplace practice. If individuals felt that they had enough experience at the job or had been working there for a long time, they would ask for a raise. However, during the economic downturn, some of these requests were suddenly deemed unreasonable. Companies could not be expected to provide employees with raises when the businesses were threatened themselves. Employees have, in a number of fields, become used to this situation. If they were to speak to their employers about a possible wage increase in the future, then they may be more likely to get one. Other workers are afraid to leave their jobs because they remember how burdensome it was to find this one.

When Changes Will Come

Predicting exactly when wages are going to rise again is impossible. First of all, people have different opinions on the matter. Some believe that the current federal government is at-fault for the way wages currently are, so they often do not believe that a change will come into the power in the country shifts. The specific field is another reason predicting an exact moment of change is impossible. Different fields are doing better than others, so they will likely start to increase wages before fields that are still struggling to survive.

The hope is that all fields will start to increase their wages again in the near future. This hope is held by both employees and employers alike, and both parties need to work together to meet in the middle when it comes to this situation.