Bob Cratchit Lives! But not very well.

In the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge repents for a lifetime of cruel, miserly behavior by making things right with his long-suffering employee, Bob Cratchit.

If only the captains of American industry were required to see one of the countless productions of A Christmas Carol being staged across the nation this month, they might see Scrooges transformation as a tonic for their own parsimonious afflictions. Because American workers are getting Scrooged big time!

Dont believe me? Heres Katie Bardaro, lead economist at Seattle-based PayScale, which provides subscription software products for employers and also publishes the quarterly PayScale Index: The results of our Q3 survey arent encouraging for employees, showing real wages have actually declined over the past seven years. This means the income of a typical full-time worker buys less today than it did in 2006.

Isnt that special? U.S. corporate profits are at a record high. The U.S. Commerce Departments third-quarter report on gross domestic product (GDP) says corporate earnings were up 18.6 percent during the previous year and that profits represented the highest percentage of GDP in American history.

These corporations are happy to point out that wages have risen 8.2 percent since 2006 not bad, considering nobody was getting raises during the Great Recession. But lets say you earned $1,000 a week in 2006. An 8 percent increase since then means youre now knocking down $1,080 a week. Heartiest congratulations! But to match the buying power of $1,000 in 2006, youd have to be making $1,160 a week now. So, with apologies to CEOs everywhere who think theyre more generous than Oprah, your real wages have taken a serious kick in the Benjamins. In fact, youre $80 a week shy of just breaking even vis-a-vis 2006. Thats more than $4,000 a year in lost wages.

How do employees feel when they hear that?

Our research shows that turnover increases and productivity decreases when employees feel undervalued, Bardaro says.

But heres the catch: Not too many workers are contemplating immediate mutiny. They still feel the lingering effects of a recession that bludgeoned any sense of security they may have had into the recesses of their wallets, and employers are happy to take advantage of that self-doubt. CEOs realize many employees are simply happy to have jobs and arent likely to bolt while a shaky economy is still recovering.

Heck, a Wells Fargo study found that nearly six in 10 middle-class Americans say paying monthly bills is their top financial concern. Forty-two percent say saving for retirement and paying the bills is not possible. And about one-third expect they will work until theyre at least 80 because they wont have saved enough for retirement. So nobodys going to sing Take This Job and Shove It without having a solid alternative in place. While employment prospects are slowly improving, its not as if its a buyers market yet.

And thats why employers need to grow a conscience. It shouldnt take a visit from the late Jacob Marley to persuade CEOs that this is as much an ethical question as it is a make-or-break economic one. Selfish CEOs are the reason for the widening gap between haves and have-nots. They are the reason we see a $15-per-hour minimum-wage movement gaining traction.

Some who embrace a dystopian view say this is the new reality, that real wages will continue to decline, that automation and outsourcing will eliminate the middle class, that we will be left with a larger elite and an even larger underclass.

If thats the case, then its a good thing Tiny Tim has mandatory health care.

JOHN LEVESQUE is the managing editor of Seattle Business magazine.