Did wage growth in 2017-2019 accelerate from the pace during the Obama Administration?
From 2017 to 2019, U.S. wages began to grow at higher annual rates than in the previous several years, reaching a peak rate of increase of 3.8% in the fall of 2019, according to Labor Department figures for production and nonsupervisory workers. After hitting a low of 1.2% in 2012, in the early years of recovery from recession, the pace had recovered to 2.4% in the last month of President Obama's term.
The Atlanta branch of the Federal Reserve Bank uses different data-collection methods but outlines a similar trend, with a gradual, uneven recovery from an annual growth rate of well under 2% in early 2010 to almost 4% by late 2016. On the Atlanta Fed's measure overall wage growth has fluctuated between 3% and 4% since, reaching 3.8% in January of this year.
