FACT CHECK: Are Weekly Wages in the US Lower Than 50 Years Ago?

Claim: Senator Bernie Sanders claimed that inflation-adjusted weekly wages in the U.S. are lower today than they were 50 years ago.

Fact: The claim is misleading. Economic data shows that inflation-adjusted wages have increased over the past 50 years, albeit modestly. Sanders’s statement relies on cherry-picking a specific high point in wage data from February 1973, which skews the comparison.

Analysis of the Claim

Senator Bernie Sanders made this assertion during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on November 10, 2024. He argued that weekly wages, when adjusted for inflation, have decreased over the past 50 years. However, the data he referenced is not representative of the broader trends in U.S. wage growth over this period.

What Do the Numbers Say?

1. Broader Wage Trends

The measure most commonly used for inflation-adjusted wages is the median usual weekly earnings for full-time workers aged 16 and older.

• Data shows wages have increased by 10.7% beyond inflation over the last 50 years (since 1979, the earliest available data).
• While this increase is not dramatic—averaging about 0.2% annually—it contradicts Sanders’s claim of a decline.

2. Sanders’s Cherry-Picked Data

Sanders’s office cited a specific dataset: average weekly earnings for private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees.

• This measure focuses on blue-collar workers and shows wages today are 3.8% lower than February 1973.
• However, February 1973 was an unusual wage peak caused by Nixon-era price controls, making it an unreliable comparison point.
• Using a more consistent timeline, wages today are 2.8% higher than in September 1974, countering Sanders’s claim.

Expert Opinions

Economists have criticized Sanders’s use of data:

• Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, described the February 1973 peak as an anomaly. He emphasized that wage gains since then have been modest but real.
• Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, stated that no valid analysis should hinge on isolated data points, as Sanders’s claim does.

Additionally, it’s important to note:

• The average work week has shortened by 10% since the 1970s, with workers opting for more leisure time as part of their compensation.

Our Verdict

Senator Bernie Sanders claimed that weekly wages today are lower than 50 years ago. While his data points to a specific anomaly in 1973, broader and more reliable measures indicate that inflation-adjusted wages have increased modestly since the 1970s.

Verdict: False

Wage growth has not kept pace with economic expectations, but Sanders’s claim that wages are lower than 50 years ago does not align with the broader trends.