Productivity: Who Gets the Benefit?

The chart compares labor output with household income in the United States in the 20 years from 1987 to 2007. We see that the labor productivity increased. The output from an hour of labor increased 55%.

Labor provides the income for most households in the United States. During the same 20 years, median household income increased 10%.

Output per hour of labor increased markedly, but the rewards to labor increased only modestly. We ask:
1. Is it fair that workers didn’t get a share of the increases in the productivity of their labor?
2. Who took the workers’ share?