For decades 'upward wage pressure' has been considered to be a bad thing.
Steadily rising wages and living standards for workers was what made the US economy exceptional for about 150 years, from approximately 1820 to 1970. It's what built the world's largest and most prosperous middle class, and is much of what defined the "American Dream": If you worked hard and followed the rules, each generation could reasonably expect to do better than the last.
But not only have real incomes for most Americans been flat at best for the past 40 years, it's now become fashionable to rail against overpaid union workers and "outrageous" mandatory COLAs (cost of living adjustments).
Quite simply, our economic priorities are fucked.
