--- canonical_url: "https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-41/productivity-and-pay-in-the-united-states-and-canada/" title: "Productivity and Pay in the United States and Canada" author: name: "CSLS" url: "https://csls.ca/author/cslc/" date_published: "2026-07-13T08:01:54+00:00" date_modified: "2026-07-13T08:01:54+00:00" post_type: "ipm" summary: "" ipm_issue_period: - "Fall 2021" ipm_keyword: - "Canada" - "delinkage" - "divergence" - "inequality" - "labour share" - "pay" - "productivity" - "Stansbury" - "Summers" - "United States" - "wages" ipm_research_theme: - "Labour" ipm_country_focus: - "Canada" - "United States" featured_image: "https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IPM_50_banner.webp" status: "publish" --- # Productivity and Pay in the United States and Canada Canonical URL: https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-41/productivity-and-pay-in-the-united-states-and-canada/ # Productivity and Pay in the United States and Canada [Download full PDF article](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-41-1-Greenspon-Stansbury-Summers.pdf) Cite this article × Cite this article as: Greenspon, Jacob, Anna Stansbury, and Lawrence Summers. 2021. “Productivity and Pay in the United States and Canada.” International Productivity Monitor, No. 41 (Fall 2021): 3–30. https://www.csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-41/productivity-and-pay-in-the-united-states-and-canada/ ## Authors: - Jacob Greenspon Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) - Anna Stansbury MIT Sloan School of Management - Lawrence Summers Harvard University ## IPM Issue 41 Fall 2021 pp. 3–30 ## Related IPM articles [The Relationship between Efficiencies Defenses for Mergers and TFP Growth Robin Shaban Fall 2025 | IPM Issue 49 | pp. 82–102](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-49/the-relationship-between-efficiencies-defenses-for-mergers-and-tfp-growth/) [Adult Skills and Productivity: New Evidence from PIAAC 2023 Dan Andrews, Balázs Égert, Christine de La Maisonneuve Fall 2025 | IPM Issue 49 | pp. 41–63](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-49/adult-skills-and-productivity-new-evidence-from-piaac-2023/) [Appendix: Variable Definitions and Country/Sector Coverage for Regulatory Reform Analysis Gilbert Cette, Jimmy Lopez, Giuseppe Nicoletti, Océane Vernerey Fall 2025 | IPM Issue 49 | pp. 1–18](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-49/appendix-variable-definitions-and-country-sector-coverage-for-regulatory-reform-analysis/) [The Potential Impact of Pro-competitive Regulatory Reforms on Productivity and Growth in Canada Gilbert Cette, Jimmy Lopez, Giuseppe Nicoletti, Océane Vernerey Fall 2025 | IPM Issue 49 | pp. 3–40](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-49/the-potential-impact-of-pro-competitive-regulatory-reforms-on-productivity-and-growth-in-canada/) [IPM Issue 49 Editors’ Overview Andrew Sharpe, Bart van Ark, Paul Schreyer Fall 2025 | IPM Issue 49 | pp. 1–2](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-49/) [De-industrialization and the Great Productivity Slowdown: What Comes Next? 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An Investigation into Recent Productivity Data Revisions Fokke Reitze Gouma, Philip McCann, Raquel Ortega-Argilés Spring 2025 | IPM Issue 48 | pp. 63–84](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-48/are-uk-regional-productivity-disparities-really-narrowing-an-investigation-into-recent-productivity-data-revisions/) [Appendix: UK Productivity Growth Rates Across Data Vintages and Studies Josh Martin Spring 2025 | IPM Issue 48 | pp. 65–73](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-48/appendix-uk-productivity-growth-rates-across-data-vintages-and-studies/) [Opportunities and Risks of Artificial Intelligence for Productivity Francesco Filippucci, Peter Gal, Katharina Laengle, Matthias Schief, Filiz Unsal Spring 2025 | IPM Issue 48 | pp. 1–26](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-48/opportunities-and-risks-of-artificial-intelligence-for-productivity/) [Using Ecosystem Accounting to Integrate the Environment in Measures of Multifactor Productivity Carl Obst Fall 2024 | IPM Issue 47 | pp. 87–108](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-47/using-ecosystem-accounting-to-integrate-the-environment-in-measures-of-multifactor-productivity/) ## Abstract ## Résumé EN FR Copy link Email LinkedIn We study the productivity-pay relationship in the United States and Canada along two dimensions. The first is divergence: the degree to which productivity has grown faster than pay. The second is delinkage: the degree to which incremental increases in the rate of productivity growth translate into incremental increases in the rate of growth of pay, holding all else equal. In both countries there has been divergence: the pay of typical workers has grown substantially more slowly than average labour productivity over recent decades, driven by both rising labour income inequality and a declining labour share of income. Even as the levels of productivity and pay have grown further apart, however, we find evidence for a substantial degree of linkage between productivity growth and pay growth: in both countries, periods with faster productivity growth rates have been periods with faster rates of growth of the pay of average and typical workers, holding all else equal. This linkage appears somewhat stronger in the US than in Canada. Overall, our findings lead us to tentatively conclude that policies or trends which lead to incremental increases in productivity growth, particularly in large relatively closed economies like the USA, will tend to raise middle class incomes. At the same time, other factors orthogonal (i.e. statistically independent) to productivity growth have been driving productivity and typical pay further apart, emphasizing that much of the evolution in middle class living standards will depend on measures bearing on relative incomes. Nous étudions la relation productivité-rémunération aux États-Unis et au Canada selon deux dimensions. La première est la divergence : la mesure dans laquelle la productivité a augmenté plus vite que la rémunération. La seconde est le découplage : la mesure dans laquelle les hausses incrémentielles du taux de croissance de la productivité se traduisent par des hausses incrémentielles du taux de croissance de la rémunération, toutes choses étant égales par ailleurs. Dans les deux pays, il y a eu divergence : la rémunération des travailleurs typiques a augmenté nettement plus lentement que la productivité moyenne du travail au cours des dernières décennies, portée à la fois par la hausse de l’inégalité des revenus du travail et par la baisse de la part du travail dans le revenu. Même si les niveaux de productivité et de rémunération se sont davantage éloignés, nous trouvons néanmoins des données probantes d’un lien substantiel entre la croissance de la productivité et la croissance de la rémunération. [Download full PDF](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-41-1-Greenspon-Stansbury-Summers.pdf)