According to a new report released by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning, real average hourly earnings have continued to fall and, year over year, earnings fell by 0.2 percent between July 2017 and July 2018.
Moreover, the average work week has also increased, meaning people are working longer hours for even less money than before the GOP and Trump passed their corporate tax cuts.
Real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.2 percent from July 2017 to July 2018. The decline in real average hourly earnings combined with the 0.3-percent increase in the average workweek resulted in a 0.1-percent increase in real average weekly earnings over this 12-month period.
For production and nonsupervisory employees, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.4 percent, seasonally adjusted, over the 12 months ending July 2018. The decline in real average hourly earnings combined with a 0.3-percent increase in the average workweek resulted in a 0.1-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this 12-month period.
This is an average number so for some people the difference could obviously be quite significant.
Meanwhile, a new study from the Pew Research Center found that average Americans are earning about $22.65 per hour today but wages peaked in 1973 when average Americans earned about $23.68 adjusted for inflation.
In fact, the real average wage, which Pew defines as "the wage after accounting for inflation" has roughly the same purchasing power as it did 40 years ago. And while some workers have seen gains, most of the increases have gone to those who were already the highest-paid. [...]
"After adjusting for inflation, however, today's average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then," he wrote. "In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today."
For some workers, the reality is actually worse. Real wages among the lowest-paid quarter of workers have increased just 4.3% since 2000, while the top tenth of earners has seen an increase of 15.7% to $2,112 a week (compared to $26 each week for the bottom 10%).
In "real terms," this means wages actually peaked 8 years before the first of the dreaded and much-maligned "Millennials" were born in 1981. It means wages peaked 11 years before I was born.
For some workers, the reality is actually worse. Real wages among the lowest-paid quarter of workers have increased just 4.3% since 2000, while the top tenth of earners has seen an increase of 15.7% to $2,112 a week (compared to $26 each week for the bottom 10%).