Good News for Low Wage Workers

The Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank has released data showing that the bottom 25% of workers are seeing faster wage raises:

This is presumably tracked so closely, as the nation has increasingly squeaked the wheel of low minimum wage in recent years. It appears as though the grease may be working. I should mention that these gains are in part due to state legislature raising minimum wage, as well as the historically low unemployment numbers.

I do think this is cause to celebrate, but its also important to keep in mind that CPI was around 2% between 2018-2019. If inflation targeting by the fed does continue to achieve their target goal of 2% for a few more years, however, then these gains by the bottom 25% can gain real traction.

I expect that this trend will continue for bottom quartile wages, as well as upper 10% wages. The “hollowing out” of the middle class, I think, will continue through the next few policy cycles.