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It’s official: America’s real wages are up under Biden-Harris
By Michael Mandel
VP and Chief Economist of the Progressive Policy Institute
for The Hill
With inflation easing, the wages of working-class Americans are finally moving into the plus column. Average hourly pay for production and nonsupervisory workers — who make up four-fifths of employees — hit $30.27 in August, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to PPI's analysis, working-class Americans’ wages, adjusted for inflation, have just edged higher than they were on Election Day, 2020. The average working-class American can now answer “Yes” to the question, “Are you better off now than you were under Donald Trump?”
That’s obviously important for political symbolism. But the milestone for real wages also explains a lot about why Americans have felt so badly oppressed by inflation up to now. The price of food and housing matters, but they matter more if price increases exceed wage gains.
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New Reports from PPI's Campaign for Working America
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PPI's Diana Moss offers an in-depth analysis of how concentrated market power in key sectors harms working-class Americans by driving up prices, reducing choice, pushing down wages and benefits, and limiting economic mobility.
The report highlights the urgent need to address harmful mergers and anticompetitive practices that increase costs for essential goods and services. Robust antitrust enforcement in highly concentrated markets will foster consumer, worker, and entrepreneurial freedom. Protecting consumers from harmful, deceptive practices such as drip pricing and junk fees is also a focus.
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In this report, Ed Gresser highlights VP Kamala Harris’s strong critique of former President Donald Trump’s tariff increases, points out the harm Trump’s 1930s-style isolationism would impose, and offers ideas for trade policy with particular benefit for hourly-wage workers’ cost of living, job opportunities, and security.
The report outlines the risks posed by Trump’s isolationist economic policies, which include higher consumer prices and decreased global influence for the United States.
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New from the Experts
ICYMI: Will Marshall, PPI President: Protesters, media must stop normalizing terrorism
⮕ The Hill
Bruno Manno, PPI Senior Advisor: This Is What Kamala Harris's Education and Training Policy Should Look Like
⮕ RealClearEducation
Ben Ritz, PPI's Vice President of Policy Development: No, Welfare Isn’t ‘What’s Eating The Budget’ – This Is
⮕ Forbes
Erin Delaney, PPI's Director of Health Care Policy: Harris’ Pledge: Affordable Health Care and Reproductive Rights
⮕ PPI Blog
Richard D. Kahlenberg, PPI's Director of Housing Policy and the American Identity Project: The Results Are In: Harvard Doesn't Need Racial Preferences to be Diverse
⮕ The Harvard Crimson
Paul Weinstein Jr., PPI Senior Fellow: Kamala Harris Breaks With The ‘College For All’ Orthodoxy
⮕ Forbes
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Don't Miss These PPI Reports
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ICYMI: Women Leadership in Policy Webinar
Mosaic's Women in Policy Alliance hosted a webinar on how women will shape the next administration's agenda, moderated by Diana Moss and featuring Former Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Check out the full recording below:
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Mosaic Moment
The TRIUMPH Framework,
ft. Talila Millman
On this episode of Radically Pragmatic's Mosaic Moment, Mosaic alumna Talila Millman joins PPI's Sarah Paden to discuss her new book, "The TRIUMPH Framework." Millman draws upon her decades of experience in high-level Fortune 500 roles to provide her seven keys to leadership for the next generation of women leaders.
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Staff Spotlight: Ed Gresser
 Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets
Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.
Ed returns to PPI after working here from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.
Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank ProgressiveEconomy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.
Ed is the author of Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy (2007). He has published in a variety of journals and newspapers, and his research has been cited by leading academics and international organizations including the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. He is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia Universities and a certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.
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