Marketplace · Friday, September 11, 2026
Real hourly earnings in the US decreased by 0.3% over the past year as inflation outpaced wage growth. To cope, consumers are increasing work hours and drawing down savings, with the savings rate dropping from 5% to 3%.
“So if you take inflation into account, the average American's real hourly earnings actually went down by 3/10th of a percent over the past year.”
“So you have real hourly pay that's either been flat or falling. At this point about five straight months now from April through now.”
“We're now at 3%.”