Nearly six in 10 U.S. workers feel their wages have risen faster than inflation over the past year, according to a new analysis from the left-leaning think tank American Progress Center (CAP).
About 57% of workers had higher inflation-adjusted wages in November than they did a year ago, the analysis found. This is a larger share of workers than the average from 2017 to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In fact, real wages for the typical worker are roughly where they would be if there was no pandemic or recession in early 2020 and growth continued at the same pace as a few years ago,” CAP pointed out in a published study. Wednesday.
After inflation, the median hourly wage increase for Americans is about 45 cents, which equates to more than $900 a year for full-time, year-round workers, according to the think tank's analysis.
Even though prices have increased by 20% since the end of 2019, the study found that wages for the typical worker have increased by 23%.
Inflation soared in the wake of the pandemic, reaching a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022. It has since eased significantly, with consumer prices rising just 3.1% year-on-year in November.
And the U.S. economy has remained surprisingly resilient despite repeated interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in an effort to bring inflation back to the central bank's 2% target rate.
But President Biden's efforts to tout his role in the post-pandemic economic recovery have largely fallen flat, with a majority of Americans giving him poor marks on inflation and employment.
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