G20 Foundation Publications Australia 2014 | Page 34

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TRADE & FINANCE
On average, the crisis brought down the growth rate of average real
wages to about 1 to 2 per cent. That modest growth was attributable
almost entirely to emerging economies, particularly China, while
wage growth in advanced economies has been fluctuating around
the zero mark since 2008 and has been negative in some countries.
The reflection of that is the decline in the labour share of
income observed in most G20 countries over recent decades,
which has continued in some while in others it has stagnated.
TRADE & FINANCE
In the light of this rather negative news, it’s encouraging to
look at one very positive note in recent developments which
is that working poverty has declined in many emerging G20
countries, most notably China. wage growth policies, such as minimum wage increases and
collective bargaining, in order to rebalance their sources of
growth toward more domestic co