Why Wage Growth Is So Slow Even in a Hiring Boom

With a pickup in wage growth almost nonexistent despite massive job gains, economists are searching for sources of labor market slack to help explain the gap. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston may have just found some.

Anat Bracha and Mary Burke, both senior economists at the bank, conducted a December 2013 survey investigating the prevalence of informal work -- side jobs such as babysitting, dog-walking, selling stuff on the Internet or renting out your apartment. Earnings from these jobs are "presumably not reported in full to the Internal Revenue Service and which typically do not constitute a dominant or complete source of income," according to the report.