Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer The Wage Standard: What’s Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It (with Arin Dube)
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Apr 7, 2026 
Arindrajit Dube, economist and UMass Amherst professor who studies wages and labor policy. He challenges the idea that wages simply follow productivity. The conversation explores why wages diverged from profits, employer market power and monopsony, minimum wage research and border studies, sectoral wage standards, and policies to rebuild middle-class pay.
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Harvard Janitor Pay Gap Sparked Policy Ideas
- Dube witnessed pay differences for janitors at Harvard: in-house janitors earned more than contract janitors doing similar work.
- A year-long campaign led Harvard to tie service-worker pay to a union-negotiated floor, inspiring ideas in The Wage Standard.
Why Wages Diverged From Productivity After 1980
- Wages stopped tracking productivity after 1980 because choices and institutions, not just technology, reshaped pay setting.
- Corporate ideology, weakened unions, stagnant minimum wage and less commitment to full employment combined to shift gains toward profits.
Labor Markets Are Less Competitive Than Econ 101 Assumes
- Competitive labor market assumptions fail because workers cannot easily switch jobs, giving employers discretion to set lower wages.
- Surveys show only ~1/3 of workers find it easy to get a similar job, and a 10% pay gap raises quits by only ~2%.
