As the miners dig up more iron ore and coal but sell it for less the upshot is a national pay cut.
Maybe you've had a personal one as well. Even if you haven't, wages aren't keeping up with inflation.
The extreme example is Coca-Cola Amatil taking on new workers on salaries that are 38 per cent below what it's paying others for the same job.
At least it's keeping people on albeit with their wages frozen.
Out of the public glare I suspect companies are shunting out experienced but  more expensive hands and replacing them with cheaper young things, or judging by the latest employment figures, part timers.
The unemployment rate in August either dropped to 6.1 per cent, or rose to 6.2 per cent using the trend figure the Australian Bureau of Statistics prefers, and I don't know what they put in the water coolers in Adelaide but in South Australia it dropped from 7 to 5.9 per cent in a month.
More plausible is that the national "underemployment" rate increased to 8.2 per cent.
No matter how you look at it the labour market is fragile thanks to falling commodity prices and an over valued dollar depressing the economy.
Unfortunately there's no quick fix either. Higher volumes of commodity exports are supposed to offset lower prices caused by the oversupply we're creating – whoops – and weakening demand from the slump in China's steel-intensive property sector.
Its highly inefficient iron ore producers, of whom there are many, would subsequently go out of business leaving the spoils for us.
Trouble is neither is happening. Under the gloss of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto's  profits, is a slump in earnings from iron ore in the half year. Since June 30 the price has dropped more.
Whether China closes its inefficient producers is anybody's guess. Mine is it won't.
In coal we are the higher cost producers, so this country could be the one shutting mines.
The strange thing is that while incomes per capita have been falling for two years, as you've probably noticed, the economy has been growing quite well.
The last time incomes tumbled by the same proportion was the infamous 1990 "recession we had to have" when GDP fell as well.
At least this time interest rates are low – though  causing their own form of grief for retirees – and an over-valued dollar is keeping prices down.
But how can incomes be falling when the economy is growing?
Because GDP doesn't tell you the whole story. The growth rate is being propped up by the huge increase in the volume of iron ore exports, which will eventually flatten out and those revenues mostly flow out of Australia anyway.
And don't be fooled by what was a quite reasonable profit reporting season, noteworthy more for cutting costs than selling stuff. The total profits of all businesses, not just listed ones, fell in the June quarter.
No, it is record low interest rates that are holding the show together and creating mini booms in property and share prices.
But if it's any consolation, falling real wages will keep them low.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/money/how-can-incomes-be-falling-when-the-economy-is-growi...