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Wages have been increasing faster than inflation for the last 10 months.

WheatMillington 3y ago
Across all earnings brackets, or only some? We know for a fact that the parent comment was correct that minimum wage has not kept up with inflation, and I'd like to see how earnings have compared to inflation across brackets rather than in aggregate.
- bryanlarsen 3y ago
  average across all brackets. And it's per person. So specific jobs haven't increased that much, the big gains are in people switching employers. The biggest increases have been in the bottom 10% and the top 10%, union members and job hoppers. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-i...
CardenB 3y ago
Bottom 25th percentile has been zero or negative growth at least back to 1998. This would include minimum wage and support the original argument. This doesn't seem to correct for inflation, so zero or negative wage growth is punished completely by inflation. source: https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker#Tab3 https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker#Tab3
- ta2234234242 3y ago
  Sure but not everyone stays in the bottom 25%. College students would be one category that you would expect this to be true of. I was certainly in the poverty level in college, but not anymore. What we really care about are the people who are persistently in poverty and whether or not that number grows or shrinks. If it shrinks the economy is helping real people, if it's not, it's helping the well off.
  - janalsncm 3y ago
    I don’t think college students would be counted in this metric because it only counts people who want a full time job. A full time college student likely does not.
    - ta2234234242 3y ago
      You've never known college students to work full time jobs and take night school?
      - janalsncm 3y ago
        I’m not saying it doesn’t happen I’m just saying it’s not a large enough demographic to explain why the bottom 25% should go down.
        ta2234234242 3y ago
        You didn't say that. I said it was only one category. There are perhaps others. Again, you need to look the number of people in poverty. Is it growing or shrinking? That's the true metric of an economy. When you get to 50% or more in poverty, that's revolution territory.
  - CardenB 3y ago
    So you are arguing that there is increasing mobility? Or do you argue that people are bouncing between jobs with lower wage growth and higher wage growth, so the bottom 25% of wages are getting worse and worse, yet they are only temporary? It seems pretty clear that 25% of earners experience no growth or negative growth YoY while 25% of earners see wage growth that outpaces inflation. Unless they are swapping places constantly, it's not really healthy for this to occur over a long period of time (as it has).
    - ta2234234242 3y ago
      Are you arguing there's not increasing mobility, with this new fangled internet and the series of tubes and what have you? Upward mobility has never been more available across all income brackets. Again... you want to look at the number of people in poverty. That's the true metric of an economy, not the unemployment number.

Across all earnings brackets, or only some? We know for a fact that the parent comment was correct that minimum wage has not kept up with inflation, and I'd like to see how earnings have compared to inflation across brackets rather than in aggregate.

bryanlarsen 3y ago
average across all brackets. And it's per person. So specific jobs haven't increased that much, the big gains are in people switching employers. The biggest increases have been in the bottom 10% and the top 10%, union members and job hoppers. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-i...

CardenB 3y ago

Bottom 25th percentile has been zero or negative growth at least back to 1998. This would include minimum wage and support the original argument. This doesn't seem to correct for inflation, so zero or negative wage growth is punished completely by inflation. source: https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker#Tab3 https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker#Tab3

ta2234234242 3y ago
Sure but not everyone stays in the bottom 25%. College students would be one category that you would expect this to be true of. I was certainly in the poverty level in college, but not anymore. What we really care about are the people who are persistently in poverty and whether or not that number grows or shrinks. If it shrinks the economy is helping real people, if it's not, it's helping the well off.
- janalsncm 3y ago
  I don’t think college students would be counted in this metric because it only counts people who want a full time job. A full time college student likely does not.
  - ta2234234242 3y ago
    You've never known college students to work full time jobs and take night school?
    - janalsncm 3y ago
      I’m not saying it doesn’t happen I’m just saying it’s not a large enough demographic to explain why the bottom 25% should go down.
      - ta2234234242 3y ago
        You didn't say that. I said it was only one category. There are perhaps others. Again, you need to look the number of people in poverty. Is it growing or shrinking? That's the true metric of an economy. When you get to 50% or more in poverty, that's revolution territory.
- CardenB 3y ago
  So you are arguing that there is increasing mobility? Or do you argue that people are bouncing between jobs with lower wage growth and higher wage growth, so the bottom 25% of wages are getting worse and worse, yet they are only temporary? It seems pretty clear that 25% of earners experience no growth or negative growth YoY while 25% of earners see wage growth that outpaces inflation. Unless they are swapping places constantly, it's not really healthy for this to occur over a long period of time (as it has).
  - ta2234234242 3y ago
    Are you arguing there's not increasing mobility, with this new fangled internet and the series of tubes and what have you? Upward mobility has never been more available across all income brackets. Again... you want to look at the number of people in poverty. That's the true metric of an economy, not the unemployment number.