2026年6月30日 / 美国东部时间凌晨5:00 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
据美联储经济学家的分析，美国劳动者在经济蛋糕中的占比已降至至少1947年以来的最低水平，而美国联邦政府正是从那一年开始追踪这一数据。
这一指标被称为“劳动收入占比”，用于衡量国民经济产出中有多少以工资和薪金的形式流向劳动者，而非以利润、股息和其他资本收入的形式流向投资者和企业。劳动收入占比的萎缩意味着更多经济收益流向了股东和企业所有者，而非普通劳动者。
根据纽约联邦储备银行的研究，截至2026年初，美国劳动者仅获得全国总收入的54.1%。相比之下，近80年前二战结束后政府开始追踪这一数据时，这一占比曾高达65%以上。2020年初，该比例为57.7%，这表明疫情以来劳动者的收入份额仍在持续缩水。
纽约联邦储备银行近期的一项调查显示，约48%的美国人表示，今年5月的财务状况较一年前更差，这一比例自2023年1月以来最高。
哥伦比亚广播公司5月的一项民调显示，四分之三的美国人表示收入跟不上通胀。仅有约29%的受访者认为美国经济状况良好。
经济学家在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时表示，美国劳动者在国家收入中占比下降——即劳动者在经济产出中获得的份额减少——是由多个长期存在的问题导致的，包括工会 membership 的削弱，以及税法改革让更多收益流向了CEO、投资者和高收入人群。
这些趋势持续了数十年，许多中低收入劳动者的经济地位不断下滑，尽管整体经济在多次危机后持续扩张和复苏，但他们的财务危机感却与日俱增。
“很多人所在的企业整体经营状况似乎非常好，”无党派智库经济政策研究所首席经济学家乔希·比文斯说道，“这些企业盈利丰厚，但劳动者的工资增长速度却远不及企业的扩张速度。”
他补充道：“很多人工作十年后回头看，会觉得自己并没有取得预期的进步。越来越多的东西似乎都超出了他们的购买力，因为他们的工资始终没能跟上节奏。”
比文斯表示，衡量这一转变的另一个相关指标是美国劳动者在企业利润中的占比变化。经济政策研究所对劳工数据的分析显示，2026年第一季度，劳动者仅获得71.3%的企业收入，低于2020年初的77.8%。而在经济政策研究所的分析起始年份1979年，这一占比为79.1%。
这一数据表明，流向劳动者薪资而非企业利润的企业收入份额正在下降，更多收益通过股息、股票回购和其他资本形式流向了股东和高管。资本利得税的税率低于普通收入税，这让股东和其他投资者获益。
左翼智库世纪基金会政策项目主管安吉拉·汉克斯表示，劳动收入占比的变化有助于解释所谓的“K型经济”现象——即美国高收入人群的财富不断增长，而中低收入人群却难以跟上整体经济的步伐。
“看到这一数据，你立刻就能理解为何消费者信心指数如此低迷——也能明白为何在失业率为4%的情况下，人们仍对经济感到悲观，”她说道，“哪怕你有工作，哪怕你觉得自己的家庭相对稳定，你也会始终感受到潜藏的不安全感。”
劳动者收入占比下滑的原因
比文斯表示，劳动收入占比和企业收入占比的下降是过去数十年政策变化累积的结果，其中包括集体谈判权的削弱。经济与政策研究中心的数据显示，工会会员占美国全体劳动者的比例已从1983年的20%稳步下滑至去年的10%。
“这方面一个很好的象征是联邦最低工资的实际价值——按通胀调整后，如今的最低工资处于约50年来的最低水平，这清楚地表明，提高普通劳动者工资并非政策优先事项，”比文斯说道。
目前美国联邦最低工资仍为每小时7.25美元，这一标准自2009年以来从未调整。
汉克斯同时表示，收入从劳动者流向投资者和企业的趋势正变得自我强化。
“随着劳动收入占比下降，劳动者要求更高工资、更好工作条件的议价能力会被削弱，而资本则更容易压制这类诉求，”她补充道。
换言之，劳动者在经济蛋糕中分得的份额越小，他们争取更高薪酬和更好工作条件的谈判能力就越弱。相比之下，企业和股东则获得了更多话语权，始终占据上风。
债务困境
当然，还有其他因素影响着美国人对经济的看法。5月反弹的通胀达到三年多来的最高水平，给民众的预算带来了压力。盖洛普近期的一项民调发现，高汽油价格已导致三分之二的家庭陷入财务困境。
通胀增速超过了工资涨幅，意味着普通家庭的购买力持续下降。越来越多的美国人表示难以负担医疗费用，而美国的信用卡违约率已达到15年来的最高水平。此外，人工智能的崛起也加剧了公众对被自动化取代失业的担忧。
汉克斯表示，随着许多家庭的财务状况日益紧张，一些人开始依赖信用卡和其他债务形式来支付日常开支，这也进一步加剧了他们对经济的悲观情绪。
“人们越来越多地依靠债务来维持生计——我们的信用卡债务、汽车贷款规模都已创下历史新高，”她说，“越来越多的人开始出现逾期和违约情况，而他们使用这些信贷产品并非为了奢侈品消费，只是为了维持基本生活、收支平衡。”
This number helps explain why many Americans are down on the economy
June 30, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT / CBS News
American workers’ share of the economic pie has fallen to its lowest level since at least 1947, when the federal government began tracking the data, according to an analysis by Federal Reserve economists.
The measure, known as “labor share of income,” tracks how much of the nation’s economic output flows to workers in the form of wages and salaries, as opposed to the share that goes to investors and corporations through profits, dividends and other capital income. A shrinking labor share of income indicates that more economic gains are flowing to shareholders and business owners, rather than to workers.
As of early 2026, American workers received 54.1% of national income, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. By comparison, that figure topped 65% almost 80 years ago, when the government began tracking the data following World War II. In early 2020, it stood at 57.7%, indicating that workers have continued to lose ground since the pandemic.
Roughly 48% of Americans said their financial situation was worse in May than a year ago, the highest share since January 2023, according to a recent survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Three-quarters of Americans said their incomes aren’t keeping up withinflation, according to aMay CBS News poll. Roughly 29% of respondents said the economy was in good shape.
American workers are taking home a smaller share of the nation’s income — capturing less of what the economy produces — due to several long-standing issues, ranging from the erosion of union membership to tax law changes that have steered more gains to CEOs, investors and high-income Americans, economists told CBS News.
As those currents played out over decades, many low- and middle-income workers have lost economic ground, making them feel increasingly financially precarious even as the economy as a whole has continued to expand and rebound in the wake of multiple crises.
“You’ve got a lot of people who seem to work for firms that, in the aggregate, seem to be doing really well,” said Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. “They’re very profitable, and yet [workers’] wages aren’t growing particularly fast relative to how fast the firms are growing.”
He added, “A lot of people look up after 10 years of working and just feel like they have not gained as much ground as they want to. More and more stuff just seems to be out of their grasp, because their wages have not kept up.”
A related way to measure the shift is to consider the change in U.S. workers’ share of company profits, Bivens said. Workers received 71.3% of corporate income in the first quarter of 2026, down from 77.8% at the start of 2020, according to an EPI analysis of labor data. In 1979, the starting year for the EPI’s analysis, the share stood at 79.1%.
That figure shows that the share of corporate income that goes to people’s paychecks, rather than to business profits, is declining, with more rewards flowing to shareholders and top executives via dividends, stock buybacks and other forms of capital. Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income, benefiting shareholders and other investors.
The change in labor income helps explain the emergence of the so-called K-shaped economy, said Angela Hanks, chief of policy programs at the left-leaning Century Foundation. The term describes the growing fortunes of America’s top earners, while low- and middle-income earners are failing to keep up.
“You see this chart, and you immediately understand why consumer sentiment is so low — you understand why, at 4% unemployment, people are pessimistic about the economy,” she said. “Even if you have a job, even if you feel like your household is relatively stable, you do feel this underlying precarity at all times.”
Why workers are losing ground
The declines in labor’s share of income and corporate income are the cumulative result of policy changes over the past few decades, including the weakening of collective bargaining power, Bivens said. Union membership has steadily eroded, falling to 10% of all U.S. workers last year, from 20% in 1983, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
“A good symbol of this is the value of the federal minimum wage — it’s the lowest today in inflation-adjusted terms than it’s been in about 50 years, and that’s just a clear symbol that boosting wages for typical workers has not been a policy priority,” Bivens said.
The federal minimum wage remains $7.25 an hour, where it was set in 2009.
At the same time, the shift of income away from workers and toward investors and corporations is becoming self-reinforcing, Hanks said.
“As labor’s share declines, it becomes harder for labor to exercise its power to demand higher wages, better working conditions, and easier for capital to suppress that demand,” she added.
In other words, as workers get a smaller piece of the economic pie, they lose power to bargain for better pay and working conditions. By contrast, corporations and shareholders gain leverage in keeping the upper hand, she said.
Reaching a debt end
To be sure, other factors are weighing on Americans’ views of the economy. Resurgent inflation, which in May hit its highest level in more than three years, is pressuring people’s budgets, with Gallup finding in a recent poll that high gasoline prices have caused financial hardship for two-thirds of households.
Inflation has also outpaced worker wages, meaning the typical household is losing purchasing power. More Americans report struggling to pay for healthcare, while credit card delinquencies across the U.S. have reached their highest level in 15 years. And the rise of AI is fueling public concerns about losing jobs to automation.
With many families increasingly financially pinched, some are turning to credit cards and other forms of debt to cover daily expenses, which could also contribute to their pessimism about the economy, Hanks said.
“People are increasingly using debt as a way to make ends meet — we have record-high credit card debt, auto debt,” she said. “People are falling into delinquency and default at concerning rates, and are using these products not for extravagant purchases, but just to get by and make ends meet.”