From David Leonhardt at The New York Times:
One more thought on the Hamilton Project chart showing a big decline in men's wages since 1969: it is not depicting the wage history of a typical male worker. The typical 50-year full-time male worker, for instance, is not making 28 percent less than the equivalent man was in 1969. Instead, the chart is showing the combination of two disturbing trends. One, wages for male workers have been roughly flat over the last 40 years, after taking inflation into account. Two, many more men are not working at all. They are on disability, are unemployed, have retired early or have otherwise dropped out of the labor force. In 1969, only 19 percent of men aged 20 and older were not working. Today, 33 percent are not. If you're a man, your odds of making no income at all have risen sharply since 1969.