Maybe it depends on what you call a "good" economy. Inflation is heading toward zero, unemployment is as low as it's been in 30 years, and a record share of the adult population is at work. Good news, right? Yes, in that an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent is better for almost everyone than a 6 or 7 percent rate. On the other hand, low unemployment is serving as a friendly mask covering a less pleasant fact of American life--we're all slaving away at longer and longer business hours while incomes for poor and middle-income households are roughly the same as they were in 1973. We brag that we put more people to work than most other countries, but just how great an achievement is that really? What exactly do we have to show for all this work?

Unfortunately, not a lot. But before analyzing some of the reasons why our paychecks are so tiny, it's worth bursting some popular myths about the labor market. First of all, there is no generalized disappearance of work, as books like The Jobless Future and The End of Work argue. In the U.S., 16 million jobs have been added since the post-recession low in 1992 -- and that's a net figure, taking into account downsizings. Second, of the jobs that have been created, most haven't been part-time or temporary. The share of part-timers in the total workforce has been pretty flat since the early 1970s and a survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that in 1997,