Everyone wants wage growth. That doesn't usually happen without sustained low unemployment - high demand for labor raises its price - but low unemployment isn't quite enough by itself.
Wage growth requires demand not just for workers, but for higher-paid workers. You want industries configured in such a way that they WANT to hire people who cost them more money. FORCING them to pay more doesn't work - they just learn to make do with less labor.
One good way to bring wages up is to have a lot of promotions from within. A steady stream of people take entry-level jobs and quickly prove themselves worthy of higher pay and more responsibility.
That's the best way to configure an economy to deal with the growing challenge of automation, which makes it possible for machines and computer systems to handle a lot of the entry-level work. You want people promoted into the positions machines cannot handle.
Expensive college educations are one way for people to increase the value of their labor - the product they sell to employers for profit - but it's not the only way. Developing skill at a particular job and loyal service to a good employer make your labor more valuable too.
What we should all be thinking about - employers, employees, policymakers - is how to make labor more valuable, so it makes sense for employers to pay more for it. Do this in a manner consistent with the iron laws of supply and demand and you get sustainable wage growth.
You need a lot of people entering the job market and finding jobs - the two very different things tracked by different labor metrics, although media tends to focus on only one of them. You don't get upward pressure on wages and reduced welfare costs to taxpayers without that.
But then you also want employers hungry for higher-VALUE labor. Policy conditions can be created to nourish that appetite through economic growth. We can also do a lot as individuals to make our labor more valuable and demand policy that nourishes AMBITION. /end
