Summary
President Donald Trump claimed that American workers saw a $500 wage increase this year due to his economic policies. The White House used a specific dataset to support this claim, but experts believe a more reliable dataset shows a much smaller increase. The measure also overlooks factors like inflation and part-time workers when calculating wage changes.
Key Facts
- Trump stated that workers received a $500 wage increase this year due to his policies.
- The White House based this claim on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for full-time workers.
- This data suggested a $546 increase in median weekly earnings when multiplied over 26 weeks.
- The data excludes part-time workers, who make up about a quarter of the workforce, and does not account for inflation.
- Economists prefer a different dataset, which shows a $121 increase for all private-sector employees.
- The more accurate and larger dataset includes part-time workers and surveys 121,000 businesses.
- After accounting for inflation, the wage increase was about $26 over six months according to yet another measure.
- The claim is partly accurate but omits important contextual details, such as inflation impacts.
