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I'd think @medinabuckeye1 might say wages for the middle and lower classes plateaued because of immigration. I'd think you might say that they've plateaued due to capitalist greed.

This is a lot like blaming corporate greed for inflation.  Ok, were corporations NOT greedy for the past 35 years of low inflation. Their relative wealth has grown with the income disparity. 

Similarly here, were CEO's NOT greedy and unethical in the 1960's when bottom Quintile earnings were closer to the others? Yes, but their profits weren't as great, so the disparity was less.

Also, if CEO's (who are top 5% not top two Quintiles) can just unilaterally pay whatever they want to their employees then why do they bother to pay decent and increasing-over-time wages to their higher-level employees? Good question.  I suspect it's to delineate a line between white collar and blue collar.  In-group and out-group.

The "corporate greed is the culprit" argument fails because you can't realistically argue that Carnegie/Rockefeller were LESS greedy than today's CEO's. You're citing the guys monopoly laws were practically invented for?

Bottom Quintile earnings did not fall because CEO's suddenly woke up in the mid-60's one morning and said "hey, lets pay less to our low-end employees and keep more money for ourselves". Idk why you threw this in.

CEO's have always been incentivized to pay as little as possible to get the output.  The difference isn't changing Corporate Greed.  By the way, most of those CEO's and Billionaires are Democrats so I *COULD* just say ok, your fault. I'm not a Dem, as I've said countless times on here.  I don't give a shit what party a CEO subscribes to.  It's completely irrelevant. 

Wages are a price for labor and like any other price they are set in the market based on supply and demand:

• Increase the supply and (all else being equal), price drops. 
• Decrease the supply and (all else being equal), price rises. 
• Increase the demand and (all else being equal), price rises. 
• Decrease the demand and (all else being equal), price drops. Great, this is why we're looking at aggregate data over decades.

Our Bottom Quintile and 2nd Quintile earners are primarily suffering from two compounding factors:

• Automation and computerization have caused a downward pressure on the demand for unskilled/low-skilled labor.  Decreases in demand cause decreases in price. 
• America's Immigration Restrictionism of roughly 1920's to 1965 ended with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.  That combined with a growing refusal to make even minimal efforts to enforce the border and keep out illegals has flooded the market with vast sums of unskilled and low-skilled laborers.  Don't illegally hire people just to make an extra buck.

Unskilled/low-skilled labor isn't value, and thus, isn't paid even decently.  There's no incentive to pay it decently because unskilled laborers don't have any power.

And there is always an excess of unskilled/low-skilled workers.  Most people don't have a 4-year degree.  Illegal immigrants flooded an already flooded market.

Employers don't set wages. The employers pay wages that are defined not by the employers, but by the supply/demand balance in the market for the workers that can do the job.

If lots of people can do a job (such as low-skill labor), the supply exceeds the demand and drives down wages. If few people can do a job (like highly technical or complicated things like, for example, neurosurgery), the demand exceeds the supply and drives up wages.

You're right, of course, that the employers want to pay as little as they can. To pay more than they have to would be, well, stupid. But how low they can get away with is dependent on market rates.

Different businesses also do different things within that... For example even in a low-skill job like fast food, In & Out here locally is known for paying wages above and beyond what is typical for fast food joints. They make that choice because of what they get for it--access to higher quality workers than their competition, lower turnover rates, and better employee morale.

You may view labor through the lens of "exploiters vs exploited", but as with everything, it's always a lot more complicated than you think.

I continue to state that "unskilled/low-skilled" workers is a rough category with little meaning.

Well, employing illegal immigrants is....illegal, so it's still a case of capitalist greed if that's the bigger issue.  Paying those immigrants less = more money for the employers.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Shrug.  Win.