Inflation Continues to Outpace Wages, Data Shows

Inflation has outpaced wages for nearly two years, federal data shows. A closer look at federal wage and pricing data shows workers are making less overall as the price for all kinds of goods and services rise faster than average hourly wages. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks “real” average hourly earnings, which are wages of Americans with rising inflation taken into account. “From February 2022 to February 2023, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.3 percent, seasonally adjusted,” BLS said. “The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 1.2-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.”