Fact Check: Have inflation-adjusted wages increased in the past decades?
Yes
Real median wages, or the inflation-adjusted amount of money the middle earner makes, have risen in the U.S. since the 1980s.
Real median weekly wages were 19% higher in Q1 2025 than in Q1 1985, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A similar pattern can be seen across other measures of earnings: real median household income rose from $58,930 in 1984 (in 2023 inflation-adjusted dollars) to $80,610 in 2023, an increase of 37%. Both real median weekly wages and household income faced their greatest increases in the 2010s. The former peaked in Q2 2020 at $1,195 and the latter peaked in 2019 at $81,210.
“Real” means the actual purchasing power of wages accounting for increases in the price of goods over time.
“Median” is the middle value, meaning large income increases for top earners do not affect it.
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Sources:
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Employed full time: Median usual weekly real earnings: Wage and salary workers: 16 years and over
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Real Median Household Income in the United States
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Inflation Calculator
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