US Labor Market: Wages Failing to Keep Pace with Inflation

( December 2022) Though US CPI inflation eased in the end of the year wages in most US industries are not keeping up with inflation. Inflation has outpaced wage growth in most industries over the past 12 months, leaving many workers with lower wages once adjusted for inflation—or real wages.

• Only the information sector has seen wages grow 0.1 percentage points faster than the consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate of 7.7 percent.
• Information sector employ just 2% of the US private sector workforce. Wage growth in the transportation, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and utility sectors was around 1 percentage point below the CPI growth. The remainder of US private sector workers are in industries where pay increases have fallen short of price increases.