As I wrote last November, the question “are you better off than you were four years ago?” is a common benchmark for evaluating Presidential reelection prospects. And even though Biden is no longer running for reelection, voters will no doubt be considering the economic performance of his first term when thinking about their vote in November.
The good news for American wage earners (and possibly Harris’ election prospects) is that average wages have now outpaced average price inflation since January 2021. Despite some of that time period containing the worst price inflation in a generation, wages have continued to grow even as price growth has moderated. Key chart:
For most of Biden’s term, it was true that prices had outpaced wages. But no longer.
The real growth in wages, admittedly, is not very robust, despite being slightly positive. How does this compare to past performance under recent Presidents? Surprisingly, pretty well! (Lots of caveats here, but this is what the raw data shows.)
Economist Writing Every Day 
Average is a weak argument when it comes to human suffering.
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Wage growth has been especially good for the poorest Americans: https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2024/04/17/wages-have-increased-faster-than-prices-since-2019-unless-you-are-rich/
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Total wages earned during the period adjusted for inflation is still below past trend. Yes wages are finally higher than inflation today but they have lagged inflation for nearly 3 years. So naturally people are still behind.
Secondly looking at average wage growth relative to average inflation doesn’t tell how differently this inflation has hurt people. Likely the middle class is worse off. The poorest and the richest did well but the middle class was particularly squeezed.
And honestly, any government responsible for such an inflation should at least be reprimanded. Wages catch up with inflation not because of government actions but because that is how society works. Government can’t take credit for that. It would have eventually happened under any government.
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