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New data show much faster growth in wages and incomes.
Wages and salary figures have been going up faster than previously estimated, with the year-over-year increase revised from 3.6% to 5.5%. Even after adjusting for inflation, that is 4.1%.
Overall personal income is up, transfer receipts (welfare) are down, and savings is up. Americans are relying less on the government and saving more of what they earn. Personal savings is 8.1%, not the 6.1% that had been estimated. Consumer spending is up despite the increase in savings. The fact that spending isn't accompanied by a household debt increase makes the economic expansion more durable.
The numbers for the first quarter of 2019 look particularly good for reducing income inequality. Corporate profits declined while wages grew at an annualized rate of 10.1%.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 02 2019, @08:46PM
My "lot in life" has been improving on the usual curve, and I'm better off now than I was 30 years ago for all kinds of reasons. However, in the bigger picture, people who started out 50 years ago (like my dad) had a much easier go of it for their first 30 years of working and retirement prospects.
I made a jump into a shaky economic area and bid my salary up 15% to make the move, which the first company happily paid, but then they left town, and each successive company I worked for bitched and moaned about how my salary was too high, but they paid it anyway, but I didn't get any raises. Finally, after 8 years of that BS I moved back to a more economically strong market and the raises and bonuses started up again.
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