Increased Health Care Costs Contribute to U.S. Wage Slowdown, NYT Columnist Writes

The current wage slowdown in the U.S. has a number of causes and has "been building for a long time," and in recent years, the "cost of health care has aggravated the problem by taking a huge bite out of most workers' paychecks," columnist David Leonhardt writes in the New York Times. Leonhardt refers to a conversation with Ezekiel Emanuel of NIH, writing that, a "serious effort to curtail wasteful medical spending would directly help workers" and "spare them from paying the insurance premiums and taxes that cover that care."

Leonhard suggests "job-creating investments in biomedical research" and other areas, and writes that presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) have discussed similar ideas. However, he adds that "there is still a lack of strategic seriousness to the discussion." Leonhardt concludes that, because the economy "seems to be in recession, and recessions inevitably bring their own pay cuts, my guess is that the problem will look even bigger by the time the next president takes office" (Leonhardt, New York Times, 4/9).