Real Hourly Wages Have Risen Less Than a Penny a Year Since 1973 – Mish Talk

BLS Notes     

Hourly wage data for production and nonsupervisory workers dates to 1964. 

The data for all private workers only dates to 2006.

The BLS uses slightly different deflators for each series, CPI-U (the standard CPI) for all workers, and CPI-W for production workers.

Key Points

• In nominal terms, the production and nonsupervisory worker made $4.05 per hour in 1973. Today that worker makes $26.40 per hour. 
• Accounting for inflation, using 1982-1984 as the base rate, a worker made $9.38 in 1973 and makes only $9.63 per hour today.
• In 48 years, real wages have risen $0.25. That’s just over half a penny per hour each year.
• Between 1964 and 1973 workers came out ahead. Since then it’s practically $0 and that assumes you believe the CPI is not understated.

It’s Criminal

For the past decade, until now, the Fed has been begging for higher inflation.