Buying power of wages lower NOW than when Biden took office

Consumers in America have been paying significantly higher prices for goods and services since Joe Biden took office – and they're still going up.

So far, inflation has reached about 19% during Biden's tenure.

But, his promoters trying to build support for his Bidenomics and a second term say, wages also have been going up.

Might be. But not enough to keep pace, as a new report confirms that inflation-adjusted wages now actually are lower than when he took office.

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A report from Fox Business confirmed the "average hourly pay today [is] below what it was in January 2021."

The White House focuses on one excerpt of the facts, that wage growth has outpaced inflation over the last year.

"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 just weeks ago.

"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," he claimed.

The report pointed out wages rose 4.1% in March from March 2023, but the "real" average hourly wage, as of Feb. 2024, was $11.11 per hour, down 29 cents from the $11.40 in Jan. 2021.

That's down 2.5%.

Under Biden's tenure, starting in April 2021, "American workers experienced 25 consecutive months of negative real wage growth, averaging -2.0%," the report said.

Inflation actually peaked at 9.1% under Biden, and as of the most recent numbers, consumer prices are up a "stunning" 18.59% under Biden.

Hourly earnings also are up, but only 15.9%, the report confirmed.

"Inflation creates severe financial pressures for most U.S. households, especially low-income Americans, who effectively take pay cuts when prices rise. Before the pandemic, workers were used to wages growing at a faster rate than inflation."

The report noted, "Former President Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, has called for additional tax cuts to stimulate economic growth and higher tariffs on imported goods to protect American jobs and boost manufacturing."

Biden's programs have included massive spending schemes – often in the trillions of dollars.

A report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday said the consumer price index, a broad measure of everyday goods, rose 3.5% on an annual basis in March, and 0.4% month-over-month, up from 3.2% in February year over year.

Core CPI, which excludes energy and food, surged 3.8%.

"Indexes like the median CPI and trimmed-mean CPI remove outliers and they show inflation much higher than the headline, or even the core, inflation rates," explained E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget.

He told the Daily Caller News Foundation, "That tells us the rise in prices is widespread and not simply one or two volatile components jumping for a few months. We’re facing persistently high inflation — period."

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