yummyfajitas prefers to offer an alternate history of the USA, full of "what might have been"s. There was an era from the 1930s to the 1950s when the top income tax bracket was taxed at 91%. In the early 1960s, the top tax was lowered to 70%, and it remained at that level till the big tax cuts of President Regan, who lowered the top tax to 28%, back in 1982. When the top tax rates were extremely high, most workers sought un-taxed benefits, rather than money. For instance, in the 1950s, any income in excess of $100,000 was taxed at a rate of 91%, but benefits such as health care and life insurance and company sponsored travel were not taxed. Therefore, during that era, it became common for top workers to demand non-monetary, un-taxed perks. The same forces also drove the middle class, who were also facing high taxes -- they sought those benefits that were un-taxed, since asking for more money ran into the penalty of very high taxes.
Everything changed once President Reagan lowered taxes in 1982. Then it became much more common for workers to seek income. Seeking un-taxed benefits became less crucial, once taxes were lowered. For reasons that I don't understand, yummyfajitas prefers to flip this narrative, and suggests that workers sought non-monetary compensation after President Reagan had lowered taxes. That is both ahistorical and it doesn't even make rational sense.
The median male wage has been in decline since 1973:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/the-wages-of-men...
Some people like to disguise this fact with rhetoric about the increasing quality of products. The debate over the standard of living can get very complex. There are thousands of variables that can be considered. To my mind, the strongest fact that effects this debate is that Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles the Consumer Price Index to keep track of the cost of an average basket of goods for an average American family, but rent is left out of the CPI. The ratio of the average wage to the average rent actually hit its happiest peak in 1958. For obvious reasons, this was also the peak year of the Baby Boom (if people have a more difficult time affording a place to live, then they will have fewer babies). Therefore, it is likely that men have seen a decline in wages since before 1973. That is, a full accounting of the median male wage, reduced by the full effects of inflation, including the impact on rent, suggests that men have seen an erosion of their standard of living since some point between 1958 and 1973.