11 shocking facts about US wages and taxes

1. U.S. corporate earnings rose almost 20 times faster than workers' earnings since the end of 2008. Corporate profit increased at an annualized rate of 20.1 percent but disposable income inched ahead by 1.4 percent annually over the same period, after adjusting for inflation.
2. 88 percent of national income growth went to corporate profits from 2009-11, while just one percent went to workers’ wages.
3. Total wages fell to a record low of 43.5 percent of gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2012. Until 1975, wages almost always accounted for at least half of GDP.

4. In 1968, when the minimum wage was $10.65 an hour (adjusted for inflation), the U.S. unemployment rate was half of what it is today, 3.7 percent vs. 7.5 percent.
5. The minimum wage adjusted for a 135 percent increase in productivity and inflation since 1968 should be $25 an hour.
6. Australia has a minimum wage of $16 and the unemployment rate is 5.7 percent, nearly two points lower than in the U.S.
7. The United States ranks 34th out of 35 developed countries on child poverty (behind Romania).
8. 36 percent of the nation's millennials (ages 18 to 31) were living in a parent's home, the highest number in 40 years. 9. The United States has the second-lowest minimum wage of 25 developed countries.
10. A 40-hour work week on minimum wage is not enough to afford a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States.
11. Today, U.S. corporations supply less than 9 percent of federal revenue today because of tax avoidance. In 1952, the corporate income tax accounted for about one third of of all federal tax revenue.