How It Started ... How It's Going: Inflation-adjusted hourly wages lower today than when Biden took office

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Michael Lee Strategy founder Michael Lee and CFRA senior equity analyst and Vice President Garrett Nelson weigh the UAW strike's impact on the stock market.

Wage growth in the United States has lagged behind inflation for most of President Biden's term in office, with average hourly pay today below what it was in January 2021. 

However, in the last year and overall since the pandemic, wage growth has outpaced inflation, a fact the White House has celebrated as Biden seeks re-election to a second term in November. 

«Inflation is down two-thirds from its peak and annual core inflation is the lowest since May 2021. Wages are rising faster than prices over the last year and since the pandemic,» Biden said last month when the Labor Department released its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for February. 

«Prices for key household purchases like gas, milk, eggs and appliances are lower than a year ago. Inflation is down while unemployment has remained below 4% for the longest stretch in more than 50 years,» the president said.

US ECONOMY ADDS 303K JOBS IN MARCH, MUCH STRONGER THAN EXPECTED

President Biden speaks at the White House on Aug. 24, 2022. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Wages rose 4.1% year over year in March while employers added 303,000 jobs, beating economists' expectations. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.8% from 3.9% in February, according to the Labor Department. Those strong numbers have continued a trend of robust jobs and wage growth, even if the average hourly pay for Americans has not kept up with the growth in consumer prices.

The country's inflation-adjusted, or «real» average hourly wage, as of February 2024 is $11.11 per hour, a decrease of 29 cents from $11.40 in Jan. 2021, or minus 2.54%.

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