Although unemployment is near a historic low, wage growth continues to threaten U.S. economic recovery, according to an article by Lydia DePillis for CNN.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Employment Survey’s data on the private sector states, when adjusted for inflation average weekly earnings rose 0.3% in May to $928.74, from 2017. However, although earnings increased from 2014-2015, they remained stagnant when workers did not continue at the same pace, according to the article.
From the article:
For workers who don't manage others, earnings growth has slowed. When taking a look at production and non-supervisory workers, who don't manage other people, earnings have been functionally flat for the past two years.
This data set divides their earnings by the hour rather than the week and found that wages for this group have only risen 7 cents since May 2016, to an average of $22.59 per hour. By comparison, earnings for all workers, including managers, have grown by 16 cents, to an average of $26.92 an hour
The national decrease of unemployment means employers have more pockets to fill, but healthcare, insurance, retirement, paid leave and other benefits make employees too expensive, according to the article.
The article states that despite a low unemployment rate, wage growth has not managed to increase in a manner that will meaningfully improve the lives of American workers. As it stands, workers need to earn much higher than minimum wage if they hope to make it onto the property ladder.
