HKS Affiliated Authors
Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy
Excerpt
Excerpt
January 28, 2022, Opinion: "Over the last three months nominal wages and salaries for all civilian workers slowed slightly but still rose at a fast 4.4 percent annual rate, according to the newly released Employment Cost Index (ECI) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Since December of 2020, nominal wages and salaries were up 4.5 percent, the fastest increase since 1983. These increases bring nominal wages and salaries to 1.2 percent above their pre-pandemic trend. Unlike the monthly average hourly earnings data, the ECI data holds the composition of employment constant, so it is not distorted when, for example, low-wage workers disproportionately lose or gain jobs."
HKS Authors - Jason Furman and Wilson Powell III