U.S. workers ask: Where’s my raise? - Yahoo Finance: "Wages and salaries were up 2.6% in the first quarter of 2015 from a year earlier, the biggest increase since 2008, according to the Labor Department. A slew of U.S. companies, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and McDonald’s Corp., have announced pay raises in recent months.
But even at full employment—with the economy nearing its productive capacity—Mr. Williams said annual wage increases of 4% or more, common before the recession, would likely be replaced by gains of 3% to 3.5%.
For workers, such differences are significant. A family earning $100,000 a year, for example, would see its income climb to $148,000 over a decade with annual raises of 4%; yearly income would grow to $134,000 over the same period with 3% annual raises.
A longtime problem
Stagnant incomes are a long-running problem for the American middle class. Median household income, adjusted for inflation, was $51,939 in 2013, only slightly higher than it was in 1988, when it was $51,514. Slow wage growth is part of the problem; adjusted for inflation, blue-collar pay has increased just 0.3% a year over the past quarter-century."
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But even at full employment—with the economy nearing its productive capacity—Mr. Williams said annual wage increases of 4% or more, common before the recession, would likely be replaced by gains of 3% to 3.5%.
For workers, such differences are significant. A family earning $100,000 a year, for example, would see its income climb to $148,000 over a decade with annual raises of 4%; yearly income would grow to $134,000 over the same period with 3% annual raises.
A longtime problem
Stagnant incomes are a long-running problem for the American middle class. Median household income, adjusted for inflation, was $51,939 in 2013, only slightly higher than it was in 1988, when it was $51,514. Slow wage growth is part of the problem; adjusted for inflation, blue-collar pay has increased just 0.3% a year over the past quarter-century."
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