Raw Data: Incomes of Wage and Salary Workers

Here’s the latest from the president’s Council of Economic Advisers:

It goes without saying that this is misleading. After all, it’s from the White House. If you’re interested in actual wage growth—i.e., adjusted for inflation—here it is:

The last quarter of 2018 was pretty good, but it’s the only quarter of decent wage growth in the past year. Here’s the same chart for blue-collar (i.e., production and nonsupervisory) workers:

This is supposedly Trump’s base, and he’s done nothing for them. He talks a good game, but that’s all.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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