Questions below refer to the following business report.
(1)............... the economy beginning to slow down, the hourly wage for workers has declined a little.
The drop is notable since productivity - the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic source of a nation's living standards - has risen steadily over the same period.
As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest proportion of the nation's gross domestic product, while corporate earnings have climbed to their highest level since the 1990s.
Over the past few years, stagnating wages were somewhat (2)............... by the rising value of benefits such as health insurance, which caused overall compensation for workers to continue increasing.
Since last year, however, the value of a worker's benefits has also failed (3)............... pace with inflation, according to government data.
Moreover, polls show that rising house and stock values have lifted the net worth of many families over the last few years, and interest rates remain fairly low.