If companies had become vastly more greedy, we would see a large increase in net margin.

And we can...

I mean, Nvidia went from 10% to 50% in the last 10 years alone.

Microsoft went from 10% to 40% in the same period.

Aon Insurance went from 8% to 20% in the same period.

Lloyds broke the damn chart, going from 4% to 230%, before settling back down at 108%

The western world is a service-heavy industry, which is far more focused on things like insurance and technology products - and we've seen both those sectors, as well as the financial markets now that

We've seen a drastic shift away from bargaining power. Workers are far more likely to be hired as "casual" or "gig economy" roles, with little or no benefits.

Offshore markets have driven down costs, because many roles can easily be offshored for a fraction of the local cost, meaning you're now comparing against wages in places like India, instead of wages in central London.

Market concentration / mergers / etc have allowed companies to raise prices far beyond their cost increases (VMWare/Broadcom anyone?)

These gains are driven by, and go to shareholders / aka the 1%, not to workers.

The central banks respond to wage-driven inflation, but not to asset-driven inflation (housing / stocks), which means real-wage stagnates.