Wages are not keeping up with consumer price inflation. The average worker is worse off than a year ago.

In conjunction with the CPI report, the BLS also releases a Report on Real Earnings.

All employees

  • Real average hourly earnings for all employees were unchanged from June to July, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This result stems from a 0.3-percent increase in average hourly earnings combined with a 0.2-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).
  • Real average weekly earnings decreased 0.2 percent over the month due to no change in real average hourly earnings combined with a 0.3-percent decrease in the average workweek.
  • Real Hourly Earnings All Employees, Month-Over-Month Change

    Production And Nonsupervisory Employees

  • Real average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees decreased 0.1 percent from June to July, seasonally adjusted. This result stems from a 0.1-percent increase in average hourly earnings combined with a 0.1-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
  • After combining the change in real average hourly earnings with no change in average weekly hours, real average weekly earnings were unchanged over the month.
  • Real Hourly Earnings Production and Nonsupervisory Workers, Month-Over-Month Change

    Year-Over-Year

  • All WorkersFrom July 2017 to July 2018, Real average hourly earnings decreased 0.2 percent, seasonally adjusted. Combining the change in real average hourly earnings with the 0.3-percent increase in the average workweek resulted in a 0.1-percent increase in real average weekly earnings over this period.
  • Production and NonsupervisoryFrom July 2017 to July 2018, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.4 percent, seasonally adjusted. Combining the change in real average hourly earnings with a 0.3-percent increase in the average workweek resulted in a 0.1-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.