Workers Get 20% Less Pay Due to Employers’ Power, Treasury Finds

The tilt of power in the U.S. labor market to employers and away from workers in recent decades may have lowered wages by 20% compared to a “fully competitive market,” a new report from the Treasury Department concluded.

The study, which reviews research on anti-competitive trends in the labor market over a period of years, is aimed at bolstering a range of proposals already being pursued by the Biden administration that seek to increase worker rights, bargaining power and pay. It points especially to the long-run trend toward increased industry concentration that limits competition for workers, not only lowering wages ...