Average Hourly Wage in the US

One way to calculate the wealth and well-being of people is to view the average hourly wage in US. Understanding the average hourly wage in US in 2022 provides insight into the conditions of many households regarding the current economy.

What is an Average Hourly Wage?

This is not the federal minimum wage, but instead a calculation of all wages by salaried employees. The data is collected and then adjusted depending on various factors such as the season. This is because some jobs are seasonal in nature and are only available during certain times of the year.

The Consumer Price Index is used for All Urban Employees or CPI-U to deflate the data. The combination of several factors makes this one of the more accurate means of measuring the hourly wages of employees across the US.

Average Hourly Wage in US 2022

As you can see in the graph, the average hourly wage in US has declined slightly from March to May 2022. In March, the overall hourly wage for all employees stood at $11.04. That dropped slightly in April, but a little more in May when it reached $10.96.

The hourly wage of production and nonsupervisory employees not employed on farms also dropped slightly from March, where it stood at $9.55 to May where it wound up at $9.52. It did rise slightly in April to reach $9.57.

Despite the fluctuations, it almost appears that the wage drop is more of a background noise rather than reflecting actual trends in the economy. With inflation rising sharply over the past 18 months, the minor drop in actual numbers is really a much bigger drop when compared to the rise in the cost of living.

For example, the hourly earnings for all employees decreased by 1% from May to June of 2022. The results are calculated by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This includes the 0.3% jump in hourly average earnings which was countered by the increase of 1.3% in the CPI-U. In other words, the higher-than-expected jump in inflation drove down the earning power of the wages.

For production and non-supervisory employees, the drop was 1.1%. This combined the 0.5% increase in wages that was countered by the 1.5% increase in the CPI for urban wage earners along with clerical workers. This is known as the CPI-W.

Conclusion

Understanding what is the average hourly wage in US 2022 is starts by combining any changes in the wages themselves with the prices of goods and services as calculated on the Consumer Price Index. Of course, such information is general across the US and does not reflect the differences in each state which has its own cost of living.

The overall drop in wages from $11.26 in June 2021 to $10.86 in June 2022 represents a real issue with what is the average hourly wage in the US. As inflation shows no signs of abating, action will have to be taken in some form to either boost current wages or lower the costs of consumption soon.