Vice President Joe Biden gave a nostalgic, labor-focused speech on Labor Day Monday in Pennsylvania, where he said the U.S. was a much better place for middle-class workers 40 years ago, bemoaned the effects of wage stagnation, and sounded increasingly like a presidential candidate.
“It used to be when productivity went up in America, everyone got a share,” Biden said at a parade in Pittsburgh. “You’ve probably heard these. Productivity went up 73 percent, but wages only went up 9 percent … something’s wrong, folks.”
While President Obama is preparing to announce an executive order giving federal contractors sick pay, Biden expressed a more general frustration that wages aren’t growing as quickly as inflation. He also praised labor unions and blasted the tax code for, in his view, not extracting enough from top earners.
“The tax code isn’t fair, it simply isn’t fair,” Biden said. “The wealthy aren’t paying their fair share.”
Immediately following World War II, wages grew roughly as quickly as productivity. But ever since 1960, productivity in the U.S. has risen by nearly 220 percent, while real wages have risen by less than 100 percent.
Biden said nothing in his brief remarks about whether he’ll jump into the presidential race, which would force Hillary Clinton to face her first serious Democratic opponent.
While speculation is mounting that he may decide to run, he remained noncommittal last week and said his family will play a big role in the final decision. Biden is still mourning the loss of his son, Beau, to brain cancer last spring.
Some believe Biden may make an announcement sometime after the pope’s visit to Washington later this month. Forty-five percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said in a Gallup poll last month that they want him to run.
Biden also gave a chummy shout-out to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, saying the two go back a long way. “You always knew the person you could turn to, who would have your back,” Biden said. “And this is the guy who would have your back.”
And he praised labor unions, saying that without them, there would be no middle class.
“There wouldn’t be a single basic right for anyone working but for labor,” Biden told the crowd. “You built the middle class, that’s not an exaggeration.”
