Higher pay for teachers at elite pre-schools filter down to upward wage pressure for teachers elsewhere.
Germany's better performance also relied on ever-stingier unemployment benefits, which increased labour supply and reduced upward wage pressure.
And, with labour markets still extremely tight, excessive wage pressure, particularly in the non-traded service sector, remains a risk.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the rate of unemployment below which wage pressure will tend to increase inflation is 5.8%.
Even with this kind of wage pressure, pay is still very low.
One important cause of the recent quiescence of wage pressure may be that prices in general are being held down for other reasons.
So wage pressure has been rising, with average hourly pay edging up 0.4% in both June and July, according to the latest government figures.
But wage pressure has been creeping up, with average hourly wages edging up 0.4% in both June and July, according to the latest government figures.
On the other hand, America's labour scarcity has not yet translated into wage pressure, at least in formal measures of compensation (but see article).
Because of an interruption in the usual link between the wage pressure that comes with very low unemployment and the resulting upward pressure on prices.
Thus, even at low unemployment rates, wage pressure might be muted.
Unless the laws of supply and demand have been repealed, it is hard to believe that there is no point at which ever-lower unemployment rates produce wage pressure.
He finds that, taken together, these special factors are enough to explain why the increase in wage pressure due to tight labour markets has not fed through to prices.
Unemployment in the U.S., which is running at 8.1%, means there are people available to work when jobs open up and the rate is at a level that there is no wage pressure.
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Second is the simple principle of supply and demand: When supply of faculty members is greater than demand for them, downward wage pressure exists, irrespective of the time required to obtain the necessary qualifications.
The employment cost index, another measure of wage pressure which is available only up to the end of September, shows annual growth of 3.7% in the year to the third quarter in the fully employed mid-west, up from 2.8% a year earlier.
Jim O'Sullivan, an economist at JP Morgan, reckons there is now clear evidence that such a change has been, at most, only modest: were it not for the strength of the dollar since early 1995, wage pressure would already be pushing up inflation.
And when we get below that, we really have some wage price pressure.
With the minimum wage this downward pressure is at least partly removed.
The theory is that as people lose their jobs, the pressure for wage rises diminishes.
Short "warning strikes" are a common tactic among German unions, designed to put pressure on wage negotiations.
Her calculations also imply that the economy can continue to grow apace for some time before the Fed needs to worry about labour shortages, wage hikes and inflationary pressure.
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The threat of wage inflation is piling extra pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates to an expected 4.25% on Thursday.
The sluggish U.S. economy and stagnant wage growth add to the pressure on retailers by capping consumers' disposable income, but the desire to shop for trendy new outfits remains strong.
"The price surge of daily life items has caused mental pressure on those wage earners who are sensitive to prices, " said Wang Shuixiong, a sociologist with Renmin University in Beijing.
Can you pressure other low-wage companies to pay more, without costing jobs?
Labour councils he insisted could still make a difference by paying people a living wage, protecting services and putting pressure on energy companies to reduce their bills.
The danger, though, is that Germany will instead succumb to pressure for ever-higher wage floors for individual sectors, leading to a workers' wage spiral that will be more damaging, if more popular, than the pay rises of fat cats.
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