St. Louis Fed, Report: Nominal Wage Growth at the Individual Level in 2022

“Over the past year or two, the U.S. has experienced high inflation combined with strong wage growth. For households, the relative strength of these two forces determines whether their cost of living has kept up with their wages.”

“The figure demonstrates that the lowest-wage workers experienced some of the highest nominal wage growth rates. For them, only the 25th percentile saw negative nominal wage growth. The median lowest-wage worker saw their nominal wages grow by around 7% over the last year.”

“High-wage workers, on the other hand, experienced lower nominal wage growth, as well as a wider range of nominal wage growth rates. These workers at the 50th percentile saw about 4% wage growth, and it is clear that a lot more high-wage workers than low-wage workers experienced nominal wage declines.”