Wages still flat despite US economic boom

Washington

IT is one of the contradictions of the US economic boom: the unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest level in six years, but workers' wages have remained almost flat.

The anomaly is troubling enough that it has sparked questions about whether the economy's rebound from the 2008-2009 recession is all that strong.

"Why is wage growth so slow?" the Federal Reserve's San Francisco branch asked in a research study on Monday, calling the stubbornness of wages amid surging growth "unusual behaviour", economically speaking.

In theory, the sharp fall in the jobless rate from 10 per cent in October 2009 to 5.8 per cent today should have s…