US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports average hourly wage growth has surpassed inflation for 12 straight months

btaf45@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 174 points –
Average wages have surpassed inflation for 12 straight months
epi.org
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Personal experience, speaking with the community and hearing their experiences mean nothing. Believe what the owner class says at all times.

The article is real and "shit still sucks" can both be true.

My thought upon reading the headline was "gonna need another 12 years before people start thinking we have turned the corner for the better."

If an effect is that minor it could be statistical noise.

I just figured the hole is that deep.

Growing up my family could pile into a van for a 2 week road trip or Disney vacation every summer. My grandparents were still working at that time, grandfather was a small business owner mechanic. Grandmother was a part time bookkeeper for a non profit.

To have that financial independence today, I would need triple my income, or my wife and I would need to double our income.

I figure a decade+ of real wage gains across the economy would approximate that. Maybe not for me personally, but for the average.

This is hilarious because I’ll tell you the exact same thing I told conservatives during COVID:

I’ll take data over your anecdotes, thanks.

I like data as well.

https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-labor-force-participation-rate.htm

You will notice that not only has the US not returned to pre-housing crisis levels it hasn't even returned to March 2020 levels.

Now go ahead and try to hand wave this way.

This is cool and all but the post is about wage growth in the past 12 months.

It's like if the post said, "did you know 1+1=2?" and you came along saying, "Yeah well 2+2=4". It's not a counter argument to the statement in the post title. It's another statistic altogether.

Now go ahead and try to hand wave this way.

No, handwaving would be saying something like, "well I haven't experienced this and also none of my friends have so it's not happening".

So, interesting stat which is relevant in a larger context but doesn't mean the post is factually incorrect.

It is worth noting that the article itself does bring employment rate into it, stating that the reason for the real wages spiking like that did in 2020 was the lower wage employees leaving work, thus raising the average wage.

I haven't seen the data on employment rate, but if the bottom end of employees are still not back to being as employed as they were at the start of the pandemic, then that may be keeping average wages higher than they'd otherwise be

The first mate on a ship decided to celebrate an occasion with a “little” stowed away rum. Unfortunately he got drunk and was still drunk the next morning. The captain saw him drunk and when the first mate was sober, showed him the following entry in the ship’s log: “The first mate was drunk today.” “Captain please don’t let that stay in the log”, the mate said. “This could add months or years to my becoming a captain myself.” “Is it true?” asked the captain, already knowing the answer. “Yes, its true” the mate said. “Then if it is true it has to go in the log. That’s the rule. If its true it goes into the log, end of discussion” said the captain sternly. Weeks later, it was the first mate’s turn to make the log entries. The first mate wrote: “The ship seems in good shape. The captain was sober today"

Once you understand this story all of economics makes sense.

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