Monopsony Traps Low‑Paid Workers

Employer concentration and labor‑market frictions (limited alternative jobs, search costs, noncompete-like constraints, and geographic immobility) give large firms wage‑setting power so workers often cannot ‘walk away’ even when pay is low. That dynamic reframes low wages as a market‑structure problem, not just an individual or productivity failure. — If monopsony explains persistent low pay, policy responses shift from worker retraining or moralizing to antitrust, labor‑market regulation, and mobility supports.