Real Wages Have Declined Under Joe Biden’s Presidency
Though inflation-adjusted wage growth resumed earlier this year, real wages are still down overall since Joe Biden took office. It’s not crazy to suppose that this could be affecting people’s attitudes toward the economy.
Joe Biden speaks at the White House on October 23, 2023 about his administration’s “Bidenomics” agenda. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
This is my fourth entry into the “is the economy good” debate (I, II, III). Since I published my last piece on this, the debate has turned to the question of wages as this is perceived to be one of the strong parts of the current economy.
The discourse on wages has gotten bogged down because one of the key metrics used to talk about wages went haywire a few years ago, as we can see in the below graph.
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