Wage trends.

[Arkady]

Here's a weird stat. I was reading about wage stagnation and assumed some of it must have taken place in the Obama/Bush years. But, surprisingly, wages for full time workers actually grew during those years -- at an annualized rate of 0.21% and 0.22%, respectively, when measured in terms of median usual weekly earnings, adjusted for inflation. That was less than a quarter the pace of earnings growth on Clinton's watch, but at least it was positive. But the surprise was the Reagan/Bush era. During the Reagan/Bush years, constant-dollar usual weekly earnings FELL (expressed in '83-84 dollars) from $315 to $312.

http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet;jsessionid=CEF5495ECF51CD8A9063D2C93A2851B3.tc_instance4

Series ID:
LES1252881600,LEU0252881600

That was a tough era for workers.

 

[marvin martian]

Wow, your cooked .gov stats reinforce your predetermined conclusion even more!!!