Fed President Lacker Gets the Wage Picture Right

From a 19 January speech:

Let me add a footnote here regarding wage rates and the inflation outlook. Some observers have viewed robust wage growth as a cause of inflationary pressures; I do not share that view. We can have healthy wage growth without inflation as long as we see commensurate growth in labor productivity. In fact, over time, real (inflation-adjusted) compensation tracks productivity growth fairly well, though they do not move in lockstep from quarter to quarter. I would note that the rate of growth of productivity shifted higher beginning in the middle of the 1990s, and while productivity is hard to forecast, I believe that reasonably strong productivity gains will continue and will warrant reasonably strong real wage gains. What would concern me – and we have not seen this as yet – would be a persistent increase in wage growth that was not matched by a commensurate increase in productivity growth. Ultimately this would result in higher inflation.