Hourly Wages Have Fallen in 18 of the Last 20 Months

[Karmadillo]

As long as we're in an economic boom, why should we care about jobs and wages?

http://www.counterpunch.com/bernstein01202006.html

Real hourly earnings were down 0.5% and weekly earnings fell by 0.4% between December 2004 and December 2005 (note that these values, reported by the BLS, use a different measure of price growth, the CPI-W, which rose slightly faster than the CPI-U last year).

On a year-over-year basis, real hourly earnings have fallen 18 out of the last 20 months (17 of 20 months for weekly earnings). The decline in real wages results from both faster inflation over the course of 2005 (up 3.4% for the year, and the fastest yearly price growth since 2000) and slower nominal wage growth over the past few years especially when compared to the pace that prevailed before the jobless recovery.

more...

[Surya Gayatri]

1. The "wage slavery" of the working poor

becomes even more a sad reality, and the middle class continues its slide backward into debtors' double bind. Even China will soon have caught up with the US in terms of real purchasing power. SG

[awoke_in_2003]

2. I can relate...

over the last 4 years, I have consistantly gotten 3.5% raises, even with stellar progress reviews. Barely keeping up with inflation. Looking back, I had much more "throw around" money under Clinton (even with the so called "tax break")