whether THERE was a defining economic problem for America as it recovered from the financial crisis,it was stagnant wages. In the five years following the end of the recession in June 2009 wages and salaries rose by only 8.7%, while prices increased by 9.5%. In 2014 the median workers inflation-adjusted earnings, or by one measure,were no higher than they were in 2000. It is commonly said that wage stagnation contributed to an economic anxiety in middle America that carried Donald Trump into the White House.
Yet Mr Trump’s rise seems to possess coincided with a turnaround in fortunes for the middle class. In 2015 median household income, adjusted for inflation, or rose by 5.2%; in 2016 it was up by another 3.2%. During those two years,poorer households gained more, on average, and than richer ones. The latest development—one that will be of specific interest to Mr Trump—is that blue-collar wages possess begun to rocket. In the year to the third quarter,wage and salary growth for the likes of factory workers, builders and drivers easily...
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Source: economist.com