Why would anyone focus solely on real wages and not factor in how the prices of checks list fucking everything has skyrocketed?
Like, if wages go up 5% but prices went up 50%, anyone bragging about wages being up probably doesn't understand what they're talking about. Or they know it's bullshit, and just lying by omission
Real wages factor in inflation. Nominal wages is just the dollar amount you get
What the article states is that factoring for inflation, wages have gone up
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/nominal-wage-vs-real-wage
I would like to additionally point out that people often misconstrue "Inflation" with "CPI". Whereas inflation is the devaluation of the dollar, CPI is the cost increases consumers actually face. Inflation is not horrendous at the moment, but the price gouging companies attribute to inflation is much greater than the actual inflation amount. This makes the cost of goods way higher and makes comparing against inflation effectively moot.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/has-pay-kept-up-with-inflation/
We find that all four measures of typical and aggregate pay, adjusted by PCE, have grown since 2019. When deflating using CPI, we find smaller increases across three of the four measures and a decline in one measure. In other words, nominal pay by these measures has done relatively well in keeping up with overall costs of living since 2019, measured by PCE. Nominal pay has done somewhat less well in keeping up with increases in the costs of goods and services that are much more salient to consumers, measured by CPI. This pattern is consistent across time periods, with pay deflated by CPI experiencing smaller increases—or instead decreases—relative to pay deflated using PCE.
Barring the issues CPI has itself with properly measuring costs on consumers, it seems your source does indeed agree that pay is falling behind the increase in cost of goods, consistently
Could you quote the section of the article where it says pay is consistently falling behind increases in cost of goods? My quoted section seems to disagree.
"Nominal pay has done somewhat less well in keeping up with increases in the costs of goods and services that are much more salient to consumers, measured by CPI. This pattern is consistent across time periods, with pay deflated by CPI experiencing smaller increases" (last sentence compared to PCE)
Right, what that says to me is that there are mixed increases and decreases.
When deflating using CPI, we find smaller increases across three of the four measures and a decline in one measure.
Could you tell me how that says there are consistent decreases? I mean, it even says there are consistent smaller increases.
Edit: additionally, the data tool they provide shows an overall increase in pay with respect to CPI.
Perhaps because whether there is inflation or not it could be a good thing that graduates are seeing real wage gains.
If they weren't, I trust you'd complain about that too?
If they weren’t, I trust you’d complain about that too?
...
Yes...
If things were even worse, I wouldn't stop complaining.
Not sure why you needed to ask that, but happy to clarify.
I also go to sleep every night, but if I was especially tired, I'd still go to bed.
Got it, hope the first part of my comment clarified things for you too.
...
Yes.
It is also true that wages going up is a good thing even though proportionally that money has less value than it used to.
If you need $1,000 to make rent, and someone gives you $1...
You're better off than if you didn't get that $1.
But if the person who gave you that dollar than starts running around telling everyone how much he helped you by giving you 0.1% of what you need...
Your opinion of that person is going to be less than if they never gave you that dollar.
And chances are if others bring the subject up, you might mention how that didn't really help and you're not sure why people are acting like it makes an actual difference.
Especially in cases like this where the gain in wages is outpaced by inflation...
Anything else you need cleared up?
Perhaps you didn't understand what "real wage gains" means? Because that doesn't track based on the article.
Additionally, I'd be better off owing 999 than 1000, objectively.
I'm sorry. I thought you were legitimately asking for help and not "just asking questions" trying to have a debate.
I have no interest in getting into an argument or what you feel is a "debate". I was just trying to help you understand some things you said you didn't understand.
I just feel like that behavior is dishonest and won't lead to productive discussions.
You:
Especially in cases like this where the gain in wages is outpaced by inflation…
The article:
Young high school graduates experienced 9.4% real (inflation-adjusted) wage growth between February 2020 and March 2024.
Yea, I hear ya.