Americans saw ‘most severe’ pay cut in 25 years under Biden

[Beet]

Researchers for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas published new findings that calculated “real wages” — the effective income of workers when adjusted for inflation.

“We find that a majority of employed workers’ real (inflation-adjusted) wages have failed to keep up with inflation in the past year,” the researchers said. “For these workers, the median decline in real wages is a little more than 8.5%.”

 “Taken together, these outcomes appear to be the most severe faced by employed workers over the past 25 years,” the researchers added.

https://nypost.com/2022/10/06/americans-saw-most-severe-pay-cut-in-25-years-under-biden/

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

18 consecutive months of falling wages for the working class. On the other hand, the people who vote for the Democratic Party now get cheap international vacations, so no reason for them to jump ship.

[sting in the rafters]

It'll be interesting to see whether the Q2 earnings calls coming continue to outpace the June CPI report, that would again suggest a need to increase wages to sustain consumer buying power and evaluate rate hikes to prevent increased retained earnings from resulting in irrational investor behavior.

Yeah the problem is all that spending is being closed to retained earnings. In fact, it's one of the primary reasons corporate profits are continuing to outpace inflation, productivity, and wages. Same s____ happened after WWII, you can't spend blindly without external controls/procedures. Unionized workers will be (in theory) okay because that stuff is normally baked in to COLA adjustments, open-shop are boned though.

At any rate, the colloquial definition of inflation refers to costs growing faster than buying power for the average consumer. In some cases this refers to unscrupulous banks expanding the money supply without any material gains not closing to wages. Another cause is supply chain shocks inducing bottlenecks in aggregate supply and thus an increase in prices vis a vis unyielding demand. Inflation can even occur when otherwise strong consumer spending closes to retained earnings with no growth in wages/salaries expenses, both diminishing consumer buying power and exacerbating wealth concentration.

Which do you see as the primary cause of inflation today? That's more a Rorschach of your worldview than anything else.

Tl;dr: Yes, we need to shrink the fed’s balance sheet. Yes, rent-seeking behavior continuing to outpace production. However, tightening the belt on aggregate demand via raising interest rates will rival its austere predecessor in forcing the most vulnerable to shoulder the burden. I contend the solution is more post-WWII than Gas Crunch; we need to ensure buying power parity.

And. They. Don't. Listen. Stupid!

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

^ Good calls. In September and December 2021, the opposite was true as "record" corporate profits were still being outstripped by inflation, but in 2022, we definitely see a new trend of corporate profits hitting real records without a peep.

My employer has been kind because they are high turnover enough to understand the new market wage rates to fill a role. However, recruiters now reach out to me trying to fill back-office jobs to backfill for the recently retired and when they brag about how much it pays, it represents a 25 percent drop in wages for me or a 35 percent or higher drop in wages for someone actually qualified to do the work. Typically people are only wooed away by raises in excess of at least that amount. Some very fishy stuff going on industry that can't adjust to the new world.

[Benjamin Frank]

18 consecutive months of falling wages for the working class. On the other hand, the people who vote for the Democratic Party now get cheap international vacations, so no reason for them to jump ship.

Only a fool could believe that the Republican Party is the party of the working class, or that they're more a party of the working class than the Democratic Party.

The Republican Party, to quote former President George W Bush are the party of the 'haves and the have mores.'

And Donald Trump was the ultimate trust fund baby.

[Benjamin Frank]

Researchers for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas published new findings that calculated “real wages” — the effective income of workers when adjusted for inflation.

“We find that a majority of employed workers’ real (inflation-adjusted) wages have failed to keep up with inflation in the past year,” the researchers said. “For these workers, the median decline in real wages is a little more than 8.5%.”

 “Taken together, these outcomes appear to be the most severe faced by employed workers over the past 25 years,” the researchers added.

https://nypost.com/2022/10/06/americans-saw-most-severe-pay-cut-in-25-years-under-biden/

I find it very hard to believe that it's that big a decline for the median worker. That makes no sense given that inflation was around 8.5% while median wages increased something like 5.0%. Which is a 3% real decline in wages.

I think, not surprisingly, that the New York Post is selectively quoting. I know that real median wages have declined given what I just said above but by around 3.5%. A better source than Murdoch trash would be nice.

For instance: Median weekly earnings increased 5.2 percent for the year ended in the second quarter of 2022

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 118.9 million full-time wage and salary workers increased from $990 in the second quarter of 2021 to $1,041 in the second quarter of 2022, or 5.2 percent. This compared with a gain of 8.6 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers over the same period.

https://tinyurl.com/42fh48eb

You have accurate stats posted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the end of July. Why you would quote from Murdoch's lies is beyond my comprehension.

[bagelman]

Yep. And they're going to go out and vote for the bosses that gave them the pay cut, to spite Biden not having magical powers.

[Mr.Phips]

18 consecutive months of falling wages for the working class. On the other hand, the people who vote for the Democratic Party now get cheap international vacations, so no reason for them to jump ship.

Only a fool could believe that the Republican Party is the party of the working class, or that they're more a party of the working class than the Democratic Party.

The Republican Party, to quote former President George W Bush are the party of the 'haves and the have mores.'

And Donald Trump was the ultimate trust fund baby.

More like the party of the haves and have too muches.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I can believe it. My law firm hasn't given out a pay increase since January 2021 and I am starting to feel the squeeze.

[The Invincible Brent Boggs]

Researchers for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas published new findings that calculated “real wages” — the effective income of workers when adjusted for inflation.

“We find that a majority of employed workers’ real (inflation-adjusted) wages have failed to keep up with inflation in the past year,” the researchers said. “For these workers, the median decline in real wages is a little more than 8.5%.”

 “Taken together, these outcomes appear to be the most severe faced by employed workers over the past 25 years,” the researchers added.

https://nypost.com/2022/10/06/americans-saw-most-severe-pay-cut-in-25-years-under-biden/

I find it very hard to believe that it's that big a decline for the median worker. That makes no sense given that inflation was around 8.5% while median wages increased something like 5.0%. Which is a 3% real decline in wages.

I think, not surprisingly, that the New York Post is selectively quoting. I know that real median wages have declined given what I just said above but by around 3.5%. A better source than Murdoch trash would be nice.

For instance: Median weekly earnings increased 5.2 percent for the year ended in the second quarter of 2022

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 118.9 million full-time wage and salary workers increased from $990 in the second quarter of 2021 to $1,041 in the second quarter of 2022, or 5.2 percent. This compared with a gain of 8.6 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers over the same period.

https://tinyurl.com/42fh48eb

You have accurate stats posted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the end of July. Why you would quote from Murdoch's lies is beyond my comprehension.

It looks like the 8.5% decline was among only the subset of workers who experienced real wage declines. So presumably the median real wage decline overall is close to the 3% that you quoted.

[buffalobillsfan4444life]

NO SURPRISE. Government involvement is negative for all