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Inflation is Significant because this can change the economy for the worse if the rates increase. Inflation affects the prices on goods such as food, clothing, and higher interest rates. Inflation can’t be controlled and for the rates to go up it goes up when money supply id much higher.

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Inflation Afftects us in a really bad way meaning that if the rates change from 2% to 13% that would be very bad for economy as that prices would double and people would be able to purchase these necessary items.

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What dose inflation mean for new providence 

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What dose inflation mean for new providence 

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flation can make things more expensive for people in New Providence. This means the prices of stuff like food, housing, and gas go up. It can also make it harder for businesses because they might have to pay more for things they need to run, like materials and wages for workers. People might need to ask for higher wages just to keep up with the rising prices. Saving money might also be tougher because the value of money can go down over time with inflation. The government and businesses need to work together to try and manage inflation so it doesn't hurt people and the economy too much.

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hope inflation in New Providence slows down soon. It's making things more expensive for everyone, and it's tough for people and businesses to keep up. If prices can stabilize, it would be easier for everyone to manage their money and plan for the future.

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Images by GettyImages; Illustration by Hunter Newton/Bankrate

The job market is cooling from a rapid boil to a low simmer as the Federal Reserve takes steam away from the U.S. economy. Workers, however, are still holding on to their bargaining power - at least for now.

About two-thirds of employed Americans (64 percent) received a pay increase at some point in the 12 months since October 2022, including 38 percent who said they got a pay raise, 16 percent who indicated they found a better-paying job and 10 percent who noted they earned both, according to a new Bankrate survey. That's up from 61 percent in the prior year's poll, during an even stronger year for hiring. By this time last year, employers had already created almost twice as many jobs.

But the strides Americans have been taking in their careers are getting overshadowed. More workers than last year (60 percent in 2023 versus 55 percent in 2022) say their incomes haven't kept pace with increases in their household expenses because of inflation. Even among the workers who did get a raise or better-paying job, more than half (53 percent) say their earnings lost ground to inflation, up from 50 percent in 2022.

While inflation has come down, broadly speaking, prices have not. There is a kind of continuing, virtual sticker shock that continues to weigh on the minds and pocketbooks of consumers that is meaningful.- Mark Hamrick | Bankrate senior economic analyst

Key takeaways

Many workers saw a pay increase this year. About two-thirds of workers (64 percent) received a pay increase, found a better-paying job or both at some point in the 12 months since October 2022.

Inflation is eroding workers' gains. Three in 5 workers (60 percent) say their incomes haven't kept pace with inflation over the past 12 months, up from 55 percent last year. For those who did receive a pay bump of some form, more than half (53 percent) said their incomes haven't kept pace with inflation, up slightly from 50 percent last year.

Workers are seeing modest raises. More than half of workers (52 percent) who received a raise or found a better-paying job in the past 12 months report that their pay increase was less than 5 percent, including 28 percent who said it was less than 3 percent. Roughly 2 in 5 workers (38 percent) of those workers whose saw an increase earned a raise worth 5 percent or more.

Despite inflation, companies are giving out performance-based raises more than cost-of-living adjustments. Performance-based compensation adjustments remain the most common reason that workers received a raise (at 35 percent), similar to last year's poll. Cost-of-living adjustments (31 percent) were the second most common, followed by raises aligned with promotions or new job responsibilities (17 percent) and other reasons (12 percent). Another 5 percent didn't know.

A large majority of workers saw their pay increase this year

The workforce is just like any other market. Workers are selling their time, and companies are buying their labor. Someone typically always has an edge over the other.

Most of the time, it comes down to who's more in demand. Since the U.S. economy emerged from the coronavirus pandemic-induced recession, workers have been in the driver's seat. At the job market's tightest, companies had almost 12 million open positions, outnumbering the unemployed by more than 2-to-1, Labor Department data shows. Businesses lifted wages by the fastest pace in records dating back more than two decades to lure talent. Workers seized the opportunity to hunt for greener pastures, creating an era of musical chairs for the labor market that's today dubbed as the "Great Resignation" or "Great Reshuffle."

The balance of power looks like it's in the early stages of a shift. The share of workers in the labor force who are quitting - long seen as a sign of economic confidence - has returned to pre-pandemic lows. Employers created just 150,000 jobs in October, the slowest pace in five months. Wage gains are slowing, and unemployment has risen half a percentage point from its post-pandemic low.

Economists expect that the slowdown could get even sharper. They see joblessness rising to 4.5 percent by September 2024, as employers massively scale back on hiring, according to Bankrate's latest quarterly survey of economists.

But the fact that a more material slowdown hasn't happened already is what's made the economy seem so remarkable. Back in the third quarter of 2022, economists projected that unemployment would hit 4.4 percent by September 2023. Instead, it edged up to only 3.8 percent.

The labor market's slowdown hasn't come to a head just yet. A slightly smaller percentage of workers than last year (36 percent in 2023 versus 39 percent in 2022) reported receiving neither a raise nor finding a better-paying job. Meanwhile, more Americans than last year (26 percent in 2023 versus 21 percent in 2022) said they found a better-paying job.

White workers were most likely to receive a raise, at:

50 percent; versus

45 percent for Black workers; and

44 percent for Hispanic workers.

Black workers (35 percent) and Hispanic workers (32 percent) were most likely to report that they found better-paying jobs, up from 29 percent and 24 percent in 2022, respectively. Slightly more than 1 in 4 (22 percent) of White workers said they found a higher-paying job.

Generation Zers (at 47 percent for those between the ages of 18 and 26) were almost three times more likely than Gen Xers (at 18 percent for those ages 43-58) and roughly seven times more likely than baby boomers (at 7 percent for those ages 59-77) to say they found a better-paying job. Millennials (at 31 percent for those ages 27-42) were also more likely to indicate they found a better-paying job than their counterparts.

Older generations, however, were slightly more likely to say they earned a pay raise in the past year, at:

48 percent of baby boomers;

51 percent of Gen X;

46 percent for millennials; and

46 percent for Gen Z.

Higher-income workers were the ones most likely to report a raise in the past year, at:

57 percent for those earning $100,000 or more a year;

50 percent of those making between $80,000 and $99,999;

51 percent for those making between $50,000 and $79,999; versus

41 percent for those making less than $50,000.

On the flip side, the lowest earners were most likely to report receiving neither a raise, nor a higher-paying job, at:

42 percent for those making less than $50,000;

33 percent for those making between $50,000 and $79,999;

33 percent of those making between $80,000 and $99,999; and

27 percent for those earning $100,000 or more a year.

Many workers say their pay isn't keeping pace with inflation

But the strong job market can be two-faced, especially if it contributes to inflation. Bankrate's poll found that workers are still feeling the pinch of expensive prices - and some indicate they're even worse off than they were in 2022.

For all employed Americans, less than one third (29 percent) say their pay has matched or exceeded inflation this year, down from 33 percent in 2022. Even the workers who received a pay increase of some kind were less likely than they were last year to say that their income had kept pace or beat inflation, at 36 percent in Bankrate's 2023 poll versus 39 percent in 2022.

A smaller share (11 percent) of all employed Americans said they don't know whether their pay matched or exceeded inflation.

For the workers who didn't see a pay increase, the economic backdrop appears to be harming their finances even more. Almost 3 in 4 workers (72 percent) say their incomes haven't at least kept pace with their rising cost of living, versus just 15 percent who say it has and 13 percent who don't know.

That's happening at a time when the inflationary picture looks like it's improved - at least on paper. Inflation hit a 3.2 percent annual rate in October, nearly three times slower than the staggering 9.1 percent peak from June 2022.

"To the degree possible, workers would like to try to get the upper hand, or at least break even in the relationship of wages and consumer prices, including by making up for lost ground," Hamrick says.

The workers most likely to find a higher-paying job or earn a pay raise in the past year were also the ones indicating they've taken the biggest hit from inflation. Older generations whose pay increased this year were most likely to say their incomes haven't kept pace with inflation, at 69 percent of baby boomer workers and 65 percent of Gen X workers, versus 45 percent of millennials and 40 percent of Gen Zers.

Workers in the Midwest were the most likely to both earn a raise - and also say that their incomes haven't kept pace with inflation, even when they did see higher pay.

Workers across income spectrums are feeling the pinch of higher inflation, but the highest earners are indicating they're the least scathed, at:

64 percent of workers making under $50,000 a year saying their incomes haven't matched or exceeded inflation; versus

66 percent for those earning between $50,000 and $79,999;

56 percent for those earning between $80,000 and $99,999; and

55 percent of those making $100,000 or more.

Meanwhile, hourly workers are also indicating they've lost more purchasing power. About 2 in 3 (66 percent) of them say their incomes lost ground to increases in their household expenses, versus 54 percent of salaried workers. That stayed true, even when they reported a pay increase of some kind. More than 3 in 5 (61 percent) of them said their incomes trailed inflation, versus 47 percent of salaried workers.

More than half of workers who saw a pay increase say their raise was less than 5 percent

Illustrating why workers feel like they're falling behind, more than half (52 percent) of the workers who are making higher pay said the pay bump they earned was less than 5 percent, with the largest share (28 percent) saying they saw a less than 3 percent raise.

On the other hand, about 2 in 5 workers who earned higher pay this year (38 percent) say their pay increase was 5 percent or more. That includes:

17 percent who received between a 5 percent to less than 7 percent raise;

10 percent who received a raise between 7 percent to just under 10 percent; and

12 percent who received a raise of 10 percent or more.

A smaller share (10 percent) of workers said they don't know or can't remember how much their wage increase was.

On paper, Americans have to see a 3.2 percent raise or more to beat inflation, according to the latest figures from the consumer price index (CPI). A substantial share likely have crossed that threshold: More than 3 in 5 workers who got a raise (63 percent) said their pay bump was 3 percent or more, Bankrate's poll shows.

But every household has their own personal inflation rate. Some Americans may have higher costs of living, depending on what they buy. One example: Americans who've recently bought a car may be experiencing even greater inflation rates. Motor vehicle insurance is up about 19 percent from a year ago, while repairs costs are up almost 10 percent over the same period, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. An even worse picture, used vehicle prices have climbed 35 percent since before the pandemic began in February 2020 - though they're off about 13 percent from their peak.

The median salary in the U.S. is roughly $40,260, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. A 5 percent raise would be worth a modest $2,013 extra a year.

Meanwhile, a 5 percent raise might not help Americans fully catch up to the total ground that they lost. Prices have risen almost 17 percent since February 2021, when inflation first began to take off, a Bankrate calculation of inflation data shows. Americans could feel the difference if inflation slows long enough for their pay to catch up - but that could take some time. A separate Bankrate analysis from September found that workers won't fully catch up to their total loss of purchasing power from inflation until the fourth quarter of 2024.

"It seems highly unlikely that prices generally will retreat to pre-pandemic levels," Hamrick says. "To the extent that inflation expectations are elevated on the part of consumers, that is probably a reasonable mindset, even while peak inflation appears to be behind us."

Among employed Americans who earned a pay increase, those more likely to say their pay bump was an increase of 5 percent or more include men, millennials, higher earners, salaried workers and workers who found a higher-paying job, at:

42 percent for men versus 34 percent for women;

47 percent for millennials versus 37 percent of Gen Xers, 36 percent of Gen Zers and 25 percent of baby boomers;

48 percent of workers making more than $100,000 or more a year versus 33 percent of those making under $50,000;

45 percent of salaried workers versus 32 percent of hourly workers; and

44 percent of those who only found a higher-paying job versus 34 percent of those who only got a raise and stayed at their current role.

Performance-based raises remain more common than cost-of-living adjustments

Even despite workers worrying about inflation, those who received a raise are most likely to earn one for their job performance, with:

35 percent receiving a performance-based adjustment;

31 percent receiving a cost-of-living bump;

17 percent earning a raise because of a promotion or taking on new job responsibilities;

12 percent citing another reason; and

5 percent saying they don't know.

Baby boomers and workers making under $50,000 a year were the only groups more likely to get a cost-of-living adjustment (at 37 percent and 32 percent, respectively) than a performance-based raise (at a respective 34 percent and 29 percent). Gen Xers, meanwhile, reported the same prevalence of performance-based raises and cost-of-living adjustments (at 36 percent each).

Even so, performance-based raises were the most lucrative, with 42 percent of workers who received a raise for that reason earning a pay bump worth 5 percent or more versus 26 percent of those who earned a cost-of-living adjustment.

"Inflation makes a big impression both on consumer sentiment as well as on individual and household finances," Hamrick says. "When we're talking about the most significant inflation in nearly half a century, that's even more meaningful."

Bankrate commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct the survey. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,404 U.S. adults, including 1,293 who are currently employed. Fieldwork was undertaken between Oct. 26-30, 2023. The survey was carried out online and meets rigorous quality standards. It employed a non-probability-based sample using both quotas upfront during collection and then a weighting scheme on the back end designed and proven to provide nationally representative results.

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Survey: 60% Of Workers Say Their Incomes Haven't Kept Up With Inflation

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More than 3 in 5 workers (64 percent) saw a pay increase in the past 12 months - but those gains have been overshadowed by inflation.

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If you want to make more money, it's probably time to polish up your resume. Americans who changed jobs last year were more likely to get a pay raise big enough to beat inflation compared to workers who stayed put.

Among job switchers, 49% had wage growth that exceeded last year's inflation, while the figure was only 42% for workers who kept the same job, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

In 2019, there was a much smaller difference between the share of job switchers who had real wage growth (58%) and the share among people who didn't change jobs (56%).

Why it matters

The wider gap in 2022 indicates that switching jobs became more attractive and more worthwhile amid high inflation (which exceeded wage growth for most workers) and tight labor market conditions that have given job seekers leverage.

Many Americans have been losing purchasing power because their wages aren't keeping up with inflation. This can motivate workers to try to switch jobs for better pay - and for some people, the strategy is working. Here's a look at some of the relevant numbers from the new report:

As of December, the typical U.S. adult had experienced 6.1% wage growth in the prior 12 months, which is near the highest level it has been in the past decade, according to the Atlanta Fed.

For comparison, median wage growth was 3.6% in 2019. However, the annual inflation rate was only about 2% in 2019, which is far lower than the 6.5% rate in December 2022. That means median real wage growth for all workers was -0.4% at the end of 2022, whereas it was positive from 2011 up until inflation jumped in 2021.

John Robertson, a senior policy adviser at the Atlanta Fed, notes that "older workers, as well as people staying in the same job, have seen the largest increase in the share of real wage losses in 2022 relative to before the COVID-19 pandemic."

Bottom line

Switching jobs helped Americans increase their wages in 2022. But even among Americans who changed jobs, most did not have real wage growth due to the rapid pace of inflation.

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The 10 College Majors With the Highest (and Lowest) Post-Grad Unemployment Rates 6 Best Job Search Sites Workers Are Moving to These 5 U.S. Cities More Than Anywhere Else

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Wages Aren't Keeping up With Inflation - but Making This One Career Move Can Help

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Americans who switched to a new job in 2022 were more likely to have wage growth that beat inflation than those who stayed in the same role.

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Most Workers Say Paychecks Aren’t Keeping Up with Inflation

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Even as inflation cools, employees are still feeling the sting of the high cost of living, a new survey finds. In fact, nearly 4 in 10 workers say their overall financial situation is more stressful now than it was a year ago.

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In the decade since the 2008 recession we've had an enormous runup in the stock market, accelerating growth in GDP, and a steady increase in job growth. Yet despite these positive economic trends, wages are not keeping up.

Yes, they ticked up in the most recent jobs report, but they're still lagging in a significant way.

In this article, I'd like to explain why this may not a problem of economics, but rather an issue of management - and one which we can address by changing the nature of the discussion.
Point 1: Wages Are Not Keeping up.
Let's just discuss the issues of wages: they are not keeping up with inflation. Consider the data below. While the GDP has risen (after inflation), real incomes have barely budged.

In fact, if we look at U.S. wages over the longer term, wages after inflation have barely budged over the last 44 years.

It's frightening to consider, but my parents, who were a young couple in the 1960s, could buy a house for less than 25% of their take-home pay. They owned two cars and put my brother and me through college on a middle-income salary. (My father was a scientist with a mid-level job.) That dream is elusive today.

As Heather Boushey, an economist with The Washington Center for Equitable Growth puts it,

The economy is growing. Why aren't people feeling it?" Boushey says. "The answer is: Because they literally aren't feeling it.

And it seems to be getting worse. Despite an increase in wages most recently (2.9% as of August of 2018), income inequality has increased, leading even more to feel they aren't keeping up. While the stock market has benefited those with savings and 401(k)s, most don't feel it.
Point 2: Workers Are Struggling
The second piece of evidence I want to point out is the level of financial stress we see among workers. Look at some of these statistics:

In my industry, the domain of Human Resources, the demand for "real-time payroll" is so high that companies like ADP and SAP are rewriting their payroll software. This is one of the most massive re-engineering projects in HR software I have seen in 20 years.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and although wages are rising, almost everyone I talk with tells me they feel like they are falling behind. Housing prices in many cities are skyrocketing, the cost of transportation continues to rise, and the Deloitte Global Millennial survey shows that 45% of Millennials now believe they will never achieve the financial status of their parents. Unbelievably, almost 40% of them are doing side-hustles to make more money.
Point 3: Companies Are Sitting On Cash But Not Raising Wages
HR and business leaders are well aware of these financial issues, yet are afraid to raise wages.

Apple, for example, recently announced that its quarterly revenue grew to $61 billion (making it a $250 billion company) and that it generated $13.8 billion in profit (almost 23% profit). This means that for every dollar you spend on an Apple product or service, 23 cents goes to the bank.

What is Apple doing with this money? They're returning it to the shareholders. The company announced it will distribute $210 billion to shareholders through stock buy-backs and will increase its dividend as well. If you own Apple stock, you see a good return, but if you're an Apple employee, you may or may not see a thing. (P.S. Apple pays only a 14.5% tax rate.)

Apple, by the way, has about 80,000 employees, so if the average employee makes $100,000 per year (which is high), Apple could give them all a 5% raise, and it would only cost the company $400 million per year, which is less than 0.2% of the cash the company is using for stock buybacks.

In other words, Apple management believes it is better for the company to return cash to the shareholders (which enriches its stock price) than it is to invest in the salaries of its employees.

I'm not saying Apple is underpaying its people. Apple employees are well paid (software engineers make well over $100,000) and sales and service representatives are fairly paid. The point is to consider how management is thinking: at a time when the company is flooded with profit, management chose to invest in its share price. Companies do not see employees as an investment.

(A recent article in Business Insider shows that companies repurchased $4.4 trillion since the 2008 recession, $191 billion in this last quarter alone). This is money just being returned to the shareholders - why isn't it being invested in employees?

Why are companies afraid to raise wages? Economists often point to the "Sticky Wages" effect.

As economists teach in school, management hates to raise wages because once you raise them, it's hard to take them back down. And in the inevitable time of a recession or slowdown, you're stuck with a high cost of labor.

Managers are acting this way now. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal points out how bonuses and benefits are going up, but wages are relatively flat. Companies are willing to pay as much as $25,000 bonus to diesel electricians and train crew members, but they don't want to raise base pay. (Even Amazon's announcement to raise wages to $15 per hour was coupled with a reduction in stock rewards.)
Point 4. The Sticky Wage Theory Has Flaws
I've been talking with economists about this issue, and the "sticky wage" theory is firmly embedded in peoples' minds. In this theoretical construct, wages are slow to rise because they're even slower to fall. So managers hold onto cash and delay salary increases because they know how hard it will be to cut them later.

But my research shows this philosophy has flaws, especially in a skills-driven economy like we have today.

Suppose a company like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Goldman, or another "trillion dollar cap" digital disruptor decides to pay people more. They bid up the price of labor and pay people high wages to attract the very best.

(Amazon, for example, gives all its employees stock options, which are often worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in only a few years.)

These high performing companies just ignore the sticky wage theory and act like winning sports teams, bidding high prices for the super performers. Do they create wage inflation and make inequality worse? Not necessarily.

When a company raises the wages of all its workers, including the frontline service workers, something entirely different happens. Employees feel more committed; their financial lives become less stressful; they are proud to be part of the company; their attitude and service to customers and client get better. In fact, the company's employment brand becomes more positive, so every position now attracts more committed, passionate, ambitious people - and ultimately the company performs better.

Zeynep Ton, in the heavily researched book The Good Jobs Strategy, clearly points this out as she compared wages between Costco, Mercadona, Tesco, and Wal-Mart. Her research showed that higher wages in retail result in a more profitable operation. The reason? Well paid employees are better trained, they are more engaged, and they spend more time helping customers buy the right products. In one of the studies, they found that a $1.00 increase in hourly wages resulted in a 40% increase in total profits, a hugely positive return on investment.

What about the problem of a business downturn? The sticky wage theory would say that you have less flexibility to reduce cost.

Well, in fact, the opposite is true. If managers are underpaying people now, the option of "reducing pay" is limited, so when the business turns down managers have to lay people off. While layoffs are common, they almost always result in a negative outcome. Not only does the company's employment brand suffer, but the "survivor syndrome" of those who remain dramatically reduces their loyalty and engagement.

Extensive studies done by Wayne Casio at the University of Denver and academics at MIT and Wharton prove that companies that lay people off then later underperform for years. I distinctly remember how Circuit City tried to "layoff its way to profitability" and eventually went out of business. American Express and other great brand have seen this problem when they lay people off, so it's not just an indication of a company with a poor product or out of sync offering. Layoffs are permanently damaging.

On the other hand, if you pay people well from the start and they feel a genuine commitment to the company, they will do anything to help manage a downturn. Southwest Airlines did not lay people off during the 2008 recession, and they continue to thrive. Steve Jobs famously reinvested in innovation during the 2000 recession and gave birth to the iPad.

When people are well paid you have enormous flexibility to ask people to take a temporary pay cut, and they will stick around and work even harder. (, a company that has been through many business cycles, is famous for investing during recessions because it's a time to attract some of the brightest and most sought-after people.)
Point 5: This Is A Management Issue, Not an Economic Issue
The bottom line is this: lagging wages in the U.S. is not an economic issue, it's really about management. The spirit is there, but the actions are not.

Just as Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce believes "inclusive capitalism" is his mission, and Jeff Bezos is funding a $2 billion fund to help homelessness, and many other CEOs are trying to take on social causes, they are reluctant to act with their paychecks. And this old way of thinking is holding the economy back.

Let me make another important point. In business school we are taught that labor is an expense to be managed. CFOs look at the cost of payroll (which is often 40 or 50% of revenue) as one of the biggest discretionary expenses on the income statement.

But in reality people aren't an expense, they are an investment. As I like to point out in my talks, people are an appreciating asset: the more we invest in them, the more we see productivity, customer service, innovation, and growth. And in today's labor market, raising wages lets employers attract the most ambitious people, something every company is striving for now.

I think we have to rethink our accounting practices too: consider labor an investment like machinery. But one that goes up in value, not down.
Also, Pay Practices Are Out Of Date
As I've looked into this issue, one of the problems we found is that pay practices are out of date.

We recently did a large study of pay practices and found that only 7% of companies believe their pay system is aligned with their corporate goals and 30% told us it was misaligned.

Why? The way we pay people is based on legacy models. We only review wages annually; we are afraid to overpay high performers; we are afraid to explain to people why they are paid what they are.

When we asked employees and HR people to rate their pay practices, we found a net promoter score of -15, the lowest of any HR practice we have studied.

Why is it so hard to fix pay practices? Not only are CFOs holding companies back, but the HR department is partly in the way. Companies are concerned about pay equality, salary bands, carefully staying within benchmarks, and not providing a holistic view of pay. People want to be paid more frequently, they want a wider range of benefits, and they want programs that meet their particular needs, not just lists of programs they never plan to use.

The pressure to fix pay is building. Research from TIAA Institute found that 40% of U.S. adults rate C, D, or F in financial literacy; 1/3 of Americans pay their minimum credit card balance and the average credit card debt is $5,839, and the median retirement balance is only $3,000 (50% of American households have no saving). In other words, there's plenty of pain out there, and if employers fill these gaps they gain tremendous engagement from their people.

If you want to put a simple ROI on better pay, consider the impact of poor financial wellbeing. The same TIAA research I cited earlier shows that 64% of millennials feel financially stressed (15% of their salaries goes toward student loans), 32% say it impacts their daily work, and 33 peer-reviewed studies proved that financial stress leads to heart attacks.
A Call To Business Leaders and Management
I talk with HR managers, employees, and young professionals every day. Despite the job numbers they are not happy with their pay and they are scrambling around to keep up. The problem isn't the mystical "economy," it's simply the way CEOs and managers think.

Imagine if the top companies who purchased back stock int least ten years (Apple, $102 billion; Microsoft: $878 billion; Cisco: $228 billion; Oracle: $67 billion; JPM Chase, $63 billion; Wells Fargo, $56 billion; Intel: $55 billion; Home Depot: $51 billion) took a tiny percent of this money and raised the wages of their lower-wage customer-facing employees. Would the company feel it? I believe not - and their performance as a business would rise.

What I believe is going on is a new paradigm of management, one where CEOs and CFOs must understand that every employee provides an outsized value to the company. And if we consider them as an asset and not an expense, we find that the return on higher pay is greater than we thought.

If you don't want to raise wages, I'd ask another simple question. Given the highly competitive nature of the job market, what will you do? Well-being programs and other benefits are growing, but they aren't enough.

Let's not just blame the "economy" for income inequality and slowly rising wages. I'd encourage you to think about your business differently, and remember that in today's service-driven economy, people are the product. Invest more in people, and profits will follow.

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Why Aren't Wages Keeping Up? It's Not The Economy, It's Management

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Why haven't wages kept up in this explosive economy? It's not an economic problem, but rather one of management. CEOs and CFOs have to realize that in today's service economy, people are an investment, not an expense.