Annual US Worker Pay Gains Rose at Fastest pace since 2008

WASHINGTON — U.S. workers saw their annual wages and benefits rise in the second quarter at the fastest pace in nearly a decade, a sign that the low unemployment rate is forcing employers to raise pay to attract and keep workers.

Pay and benefits for all U.S. workers increased 2.8 percent in the April-June quarter from a year earlier, the most since the third quarter of 2008. Total compensation for private industry workers — which excludes state and local employees — rose 2.9 percent, the best since the second quarter of 2008.

The unemployment rate is near an 18-year low of 4 percent, leaving employers scrambling to find the workers they need. There are more open jobs than there are unemployed workers, according to government data, for the first time since records began in 2000.

Annual US worker pay gains rose at fastest pace since 2008

 

Ha! They've already tried. Good Ol' Wapo just can't acknowledge without editorializing:

"Inflation is heating up"
"Productivity is lagging"
"Businesses are investing in themselves with stock buy backs, not buying new equipment"
"Wages are rising in the big coastal cities, not in other areas"

Despite the article being about wage gains, there was this:
"The results suggest that an economy firing on most cylinders is still failing to produce the kind of broad-based gains that Republicans have pledged to deliver."

Analysis | The Finance 202: Republicans crow about wage growth