CLAIM: “Inflation has fallen every month for the last six months while take home pay has gone up,” Biden said.
In the talking points circulated yesterday by the White House, the claim was even more specific. The White House claimed that wages adjusted for inflation are higher than they were seven months ago.
VERDICT: MISLEADING.
Inflation has slowed in recent months but not enough to prevent American workers from falling behind on a year-over-year basis.
Real average hourly wages—that is, adjusted for inflation—were down in both 2021 and 2022.
Real average hourly earnings dropped 1.7 percent, seasonally adjusted, from December 2021 to December 2022. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 1.4 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 3.1-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over last year.
Real average hourly earnings decreased 2.4 percent in the prior year. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with no change in the average workweek resulted in a 2.3-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.
Biden said “take home pay has gone up.” That’s Half True.
Wages have outpaced inflation for the past two quarters. However, that increase is only beginning to compensate for the wages that were eaten away by inflation earlier in Biden’s presidency. #SOTUhttps://t.co/GM5R3oGZxE
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) February 8, 2023
The paychecks of Americans have grown but prices are up by even more.
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