Workers are at an extreme wage disadvantage, especially outside of cities.

The basic idea of monopsony is that if employers don’t have to compete with one another for workers, they can pay less, and workers will be stuck without the outside job offers that would enable them to claim higher wages. The monopsony story is consistent with a wide range of observed labor market phenomena: wage stagnation, declining geographic and job-to-job mobility, deterioration of the job ladder, especially for low-wage and young workers, and declines in entrepreneurship and “business dynamism.”

via How Widespread Is Labor Monopsony? Some New Results Suggest It’s Pervasive. – Roosevelt Institute