A weaker dollar and an energy boom are pushing up pay
|WASHINGTON, DC|5 min read
IF 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 worker’s inflation-adjusted earnings, 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.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Great again”
From the November 18th 2017 edition
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