1 yr. ago • 97%

Pay Raises Are Finally Beating Inflation After Two Years of Falling Behind

www.wsj.com Pay Raises Are Finally Beating Inflation After Two Years of Falling Behind

If the trend persists, it gives Americans leeway to propel the economy through increased spending, which could help the U.S. skirt a recession.

Wages rise more than 4% while consumer prices increase 3%

Archive link: https://archive.ph/gKfPr

40 comments

I have never received an inflation beating raise, not once in my life, and I'm 50 years old. The only way to get good raises is to job hop. And anyway, 3%CPI? Have they done any food shopping in the past year?

51
- In my 40's and pretty similar experience. Raises are always 3-5%, with several years where they didn't even meet that. Hell, I remember one year having manager take me out to lunch and explain to me that the company wasn't doing any raises that year. The following year I had a new job at ~20% higher salary. And companies wonder why workers have no loyalty anymore. In the end, the only thing that has kept my salary rising faster than inflation is to job hop every 3-5 years. I'd rather not. Hell, I like the company I'm at now and they talk a fantastic game about building a long term career. We'll see how that pans out come raise time.
  
  12
  
  I take any long-term pipe dreams with a grain of salt nowadays. I spent 3 years "just six more months" at a time because I believed the owner of the company. Never again.
  
  7
- Saw a store selling a gallon of milk for $7. Was an “upscale” grocery store, but come on. Half a load of bread from the bakery was $8. Where is the other half of my bread?! I walked out
  
  3
- Yeah. While I do feel like the impacts of inflation are slowly slightly (maximum price gouging achieved), 3% CPI has to be some wildly-creative math.
  
  2
- They exclude food, fuel and some other things from CPI. The government made this change about a year ago. It's wrong and most of us know it.
  
  2
  
  This is easily verified to be false.
  
  5
  
  This is disinformation.
  
  https://www.bls.gov/cpi/additional-resources/historical-changes.htm
  
  There have been very few changes, and none in the last few years. And when they made changes last they were small changes that only make the score more accurate:
  
  Changes to the CPI establishment frame (2019-2020)
  
  •Replaced Telephone Point-of-Purchase Survey (TPOPS) as source of retail establishment frame with data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE)
  
  •Eliminated redundancies and inefficiencies in survey operations and reduced household burden Use of Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages business registry to refine the location and address data from the CE
  
  • Use of Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages business registry to refine the location and address data from the CE
  
  “It’s wrong and most of use know it.” I don’t think most of anyone knows it. And the ones who do are misinformed, repeating false internet narratives without doing any sort of fact checking.
  
  There’s been 13 revisions in over 100 years.
  
  2
Get back to me when we've corrected the last 30 years of wage stagnation too

36
I’ve worked 2 manufacturing jobs in the past 2 years, and know others that work at other factories. We have not received raises that track with inflation, ever. I know this is anecdotal, but lived experiences often differ to what stats are cited.

20
Some good news

Raises for lower-income workers were particularly strong in early 2023. Restaurants, hotels and similar businesses hired at a brisk pace to cater to customers eager for services that were limited initially in the Covid-19 pandemic. While leisure and hospitality employment gains have slowed in recent months, workers in the industry saw their hourly pay rise faster than overall wage growth and inflation.

Wages for manufacturing and business-services workers are also outpacing inflation. Pay gains have been narrower in the tech-heavy information sector, where several large companies have cut staff.

15
Where? My rent has gone up $200 for the third year in a row. Over 5 years my rent has gone up 33%, meanwhile my pay has only gone up 25%.

12
- Renting is often more expensive monthly than owning a home. Obviously this differs by area, but particularly as you get out of the city, homes get downright inexpensive.
  
  -1
  
  I don't think this is true at the moment (with interest rates) or in cities, as a rule. A 2-bedroom apartment rents for $3K but sells for $1M+ where I live in the Boston area, so a mortgage payment would be at least double our rent :(
  
  I'm at the point where I very much want to own a home - emotionally - but it's hard to justify financially.
  
  6
  
  speak for yourself. in my local market real estate prices have gone up 50% in 3 years. and rents have only gone up 20%
  
  4
CPI does not include housing costs

11
- The CPI has been changed over and over to deliberately understate inflation. Hedonics and owners equivalent rent stand out particularly strongly
  
  8
  
  Yet comparisons of methodologies show little difference.
  
  3
- CPI doesn't include the data it includes now?
  
  3
We should really stop calling inflation adjustment "raises"

9
Cool, I'll print this out and share it with my employer

:(

6
Correct me if I’m mistaken but if EVERYONE gets raises beating inflation, doesn’t that make inflation worse?

2
That's why in IT field workers don't trust unions and we just job hop every 2 years give or take

2
Been outpacing inflation for several months now.

1

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