Many economists have expressed concern that median wages have stagnated since the 1970s, as illustrated in the following chart from the Economic Policy Institute. For workers in the 10th, 20th and 50th percentiles, median hourly wages haven’t grown much at all since the early 1970s. But a few economists have argued that this misses what’s really going on: Since the 1970s, women and racial minorities have become more integrated into the general workforce.