It's a mystery...or is it?

The US economy grew last quarter at its strongest pace in 10 years. Stock markets soar: Another year, another record. The end of the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying stimulus program stressed investors this fall, but U.S. stocks kept rising, extending the bull market run to nearly six years. More companies acquired each other and big companies bought up more than $400 billion of their own stock, helping to put the Standard & Poor’s 500 index on pace for a 12 percent gain in 2014. And despite the end of the Fed’s bond purchases, which was expected to weigh on markets, bond prices rallied and rates dropped. Climbing markets make it easier to do stock deals, and borrowing is cheap. Initial public offerings had their biggest year since 2000. Health care companies made up 37 percent of all IPOs in the U.S., nearly double the level in 2013.The GDP growth, at an annual rate of 5 percent, was all the more impressive because growth in the second quarter also was strong – which raises a question. Where are the pay rises?

Pay still stagnates or declines, and workers’ standard of living is either failing to gain ground or losing ground — no matter how far they can stretch our paychecks. Even for those well-positioned in the jobs market there is no good news. In its year- end review of economic conditions in 2014, the Economic Policy Institute looked at the average hourly wages of college graduates age 21 to 24. Since the recession officially ended in mid-2009, the average for young college-educated men has declined from just over $18 an hour to just under $17 an hour in 2014. For young college-educated women, average hourly wages have declined from $16.90 in 2009 to $15.29 in 2014.  Income for the bottom 99 percent of workers was stagnant, rising only 0.4 percent.

Millions of Americans still struggle with low pay and fewer hours of work than they want, and millions have given up looking for a job entirely. Inequality has been rising, and median household incomes have fallen since the recession began in late 2007. But the federal minimum hourly wage has remained at $7.25 since 2009. Income for the bottom 99 percent of workers was stagnant, rising only 0.4 percent.

The pay for the top 1 percent rose 31.4 percent in the three years from 2009 to 2012, according to research by Emmanuel Saez, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.