US Median Wage Growth

In case people need more evidence that Joe American is getting pissed on by the current administration, Edward Luce and Krishna Guha report that:

The US is now in its fifth year of growth since the last recession. Yet median
weekly earnings ... have fallen by 3.2 per cent in real terms since the start of
the recovery in October 2001. Similarly, average hourly earnings for
non-managerial workers have fallen by 0.6 per cent since the last quarter of
2001, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This contrasts with
previous US recoveries, in which wage growth started to overtake inflation at a
much earlier stage in the cycle.

In other words, the wealthy are pocketing all the gains from the current economic expansion, while the middle class and below were wealthier 5 years ago than they are today. Good thing Bush fired 50% of the estate tax auditors working at the IRS: it'd be a real shame if his friends were caught in ritual tax evasion.

Hat Tip: Economist's View