Our Changing Globe

The prolonged recession combined with low inflation continue to the drag down the wages of millions of Americans, and to effectively freeze the benefits of millions of retirees too.

Figures based on the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report suggest that average weekly wages after adjusting for inflation have fallen by 1.4% this year for private-sector workers through September to $616.11.

The bureau’s data cover 82% of private-sector workers and if the present trend continues, it will mark the biggest annual decline in real wages since 1991.

* Managers and some higher-paid professionals were no included in the report.

The main reason for the fall in weekly wages is that employees are now working and average of just 30 hours per week which is the least since tracking began in 1964 and what makes the news even grimmer, is that average hourly wages have declined by .5% this year to $18.67 an hour in September.

Ten states link minimum wages to inflation, and Colorado announced this week that it will become the first state to lower its minimum wage since the federal minimum wage law was passed in 1938.

Wages are usually the last thing to deteriorate in a recession, and the fact that it’s happening means that they’re not likely to increase at any time in the near future.