Labor Shortages Give Low-Pay Workers a Raise. Inflation Eats It Up. - WSJ

Overall consumer prices rose 5.3% in August from a year earlier, a slightly slower pace than in June and July but still near a 13-year high, said the Labor Department. That means that for the lowest-earning tier of workers, “real” wages—pay adjusted for inflation—fell 0.5% in August from a year earlier, according to data from the Atlanta Fed and the Labor Department. That contrasts with 2.1% annual growth in the two years before the pandemic.

5.3% is more than double the target rate. It’s been like this for months. Yet policy makers sit on their hands in their ivory towers and call it “transitory” and Congress muses about another $5T in new spending on top of the $2T in March, on top of the $2T in 2019.