[mmichaels1970]

The error is a focus on “hourly wages”. Employers and the market place focus on total cost of an employee.

I agree. We call it "burden". Increased regulations, higher healthcare premiums, etc directly affect burden. And the more you increase burden, the less likely you are to increase "labor". So an employee can cost more, but not necessarily make more.

The most surefire way to increase labor expenditures for a business is to find ways to reduce burden expenditures.

[1010RD]

We cut cap gains, but left the labor taxes in place. That made/makes labor more expensive for both the employer and the employee. Take a look at the welfare cliff a person faces if they try to improve themselves.

Add the fact that government school central planners decided that everyone needed to go to college. Like global warming, the Food Pyramid, the War on Poverty, et. al. their top down, big money policy wasted countless lives and cause all kinds of misallocations in the economic lives of people.

We need good trades people. Get rid of local licensing, zoning and permitting regulations that stop people from working or innovating.