# Wages and Workers **URL:** **By** Peter Van Doren, Aaron Ross Powell, Trevor Burrus **Published:** January 13, 2017 --- Peter Van Doren joins us this week for a discussion on how wages are determined in a market economy. Peter Van Doren joins us this week for a discussion on how wages are determined in a market economy. Is there a correlation between a worker's productivity and the value they provide for society? Why has CEO pay increased so much lately? Should the government have a role in fixing unequal or unfair wages? **Show Notes and Further Reading** Van Doren mentions [this blog post by Robert Lawrence on the gap between real wages and labor productivity](https://piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/growing-gap-between-real-wages-and-labor-productivity). See also [this link for the same discussion](http://www.csls.ca/reports/csls2008-8.pdf) (only with Canadian data) on the terms of trade between what workers make and what they consume. Here are papers by [Kevin Murphy](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2041679) and [Steven Kaplan](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2134208) on CEO pay. Van Doren also mentions [_The Homevoter Hypothesis: How Home Values Influence Local Government Taxation, School Finance, and Land-Use Policies_](https://www.amazon.com/Homevoter-Hypothesis-Influence-Government-Taxation/dp/0674015959) by William Fischel.