Average hourly wage growth has exceeded inflation for 12 straight months, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics data released this morning. This real (or inflation-adjusted) wage growth is a key indicator of how well the average worker’s wage can improve their standard of living. As inflation continues to normalize, I’m optimistic more workers will…
The “real wages” is just the difference between the nominal wages and inflation. It’s negative when wages have increased but not as much as inflation, and positive when they’ve increased more than inflation.
So the literal number of dollars people are getting have been going up the whole time, but for a while there the amount of stuff your money could buy you was going down anyway. It’s recently the case that the amount of stuff you could buy has been going up. Not, you know, a lot, but…
The “real wages” is just the difference between the nominal wages and inflation. It’s negative when wages have increased but not as much as inflation, and positive when they’ve increased more than inflation.
So the literal number of dollars people are getting have been going up the whole time, but for a while there the amount of stuff your money could buy you was going down anyway. It’s recently the case that the amount of stuff you could buy has been going up. Not, you know, a lot, but…