Due to record-breaking inflation levels under the Biden administration, the average American’s wage has decreased nearly 2% from June 2020 to June 2021.
According to recently released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “average hourly earnings” have increased from $29.35 in June 2020 to $30.40 in June 2021. When adjusting for inflation, however, “real average hourly earnings” have decreased 1.7% during that same period.
By comparison, when former President Trump left office, Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that “real average hourly earnings” had risen 3.8% from January 2020 to January 2021.
While the economy under Biden could have potentially benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, the president’s policies have effectively nullified that trend.
While real average hourly earnings have steadily declined this year, wages rose to -1.7% in June — an improvement compared to -3.7% and -2.9% in April and May, respectively. However, this minor boost appears feeble compared to the 4.2% real average hourly earnings reported for June, 2020.
After Biden’s American Rescue Plan was passed in March 2021, inflation hit its highest level since the Great Recession for every following month.
“[In June], the consumer price index increased 5.4% from a year earlier, the largest jump since August 2008, just before the worst of the financial crisis. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting a 5% gain,” CNBC reported. “Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, the core CPI [consumer price index] rose 4.5%, the sharpest move for that measure since September 1991 and well above the estimate of 3.8%. On a monthly basis, headline and core prices rose 0.9% against 0.5% estimates.”
At the same time, Biden’s increase of unemployment benefits severely delayed the recovery of jobs. A month after the American Rescue Plan was passed, the economy added back nearly 750,000 jobs less than expected.
Forbes reported, “The United States added 266,000 jobs in April, according to data released by the Labor Department Friday—much worse than the 1 million job gains economists expected and far fewer than the 916,000 jobs added in March, indicating that the long-tepid labor market recovery is slowing down again even as stocks and corporate earnings rip higher.”
