Compensation per Hour

Random Eyes brought me to this graph:

Graph #1: Percent Change from Year Ago, since 1960

Note that the years of consistently high percentage increase are the years of the Great Inflation, from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s.

Here's the same graph, for all the years available at FRED:

Graph #2: Percent Change from Year Ago, since 1947

And here's how it looks when you subtract out the inflation rate:

Graph #3: ΔCompensation less ΔCPI

Choppy, because it subtracts one rate-of-change from another. However, the thing looks to me like it's all downhill, except for the late 1990s, the miracle years.

Maybe you could argue that the trend was flat till the latter 1960s.

Another look. This time, the ratio of given values. No "percent change".

Graph #4: Compensation per Hour, Relative to the Price Level

Compensation increased consistently faster than consumer prices from 1947 to around 1973. Then compensation stalled, increasing almost not at all until after 1997. Then it went up again. Interesting I think, because of the three distinct phases.