Real Earnings – January, 2015

REAL EARNINGS * JANUARY 2015

All employees

Real average hourly earnings for all employees rose 1.2 percent from December to January, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This result stems from a 0.5 percent increase in average hourly earnings combined with a 0.7 percent decrease in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).

Real average weekly earnings increased by 1.2 percent over the month due to the increase in real

average hourly earnings combined with no change in the average workweek.

Real average hourly earnings increased by 2.4 percent, seasonally adjusted, from January 2014 to

January 2015. This increase in real average hourly earnings, combined with a 0.6 percent increase in the average workweek, resulted in a 3.0 percent increase in real average weekly earnings over this period.

Production and nonsupervisory employees

Real average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees rose 1.3 percent from December to January, seasonally adjusted. This result stems from a 0.3 percent increase in average hourly earnings combined with a 0.9 percent decrease in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

Real average weekly earnings increased by 1.0 percent over the month due to the increase in real

average hourly earnings being offset by a decrease of 0.3 percent in the average workweek.

Real average hourly earnings increased by 3.0 percent, seasonally adjusted, from January 2014 to

January 2015. The increase in real average hourly earnings, combined with a 0.9 percent increase in the average workweek, resulted in a 3.8 percent increase in real average weekly earnings over this period.

______________

Real Earnings for February 2015 is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at 8:30

a.m. (EDT).

Revisions to Real Earnings Data

The seasonally adjusted constant dollar series presented in this release have been revised to reflect new seasonal adjustment factors calculated for the CPI-U and CPI-W. This revision affects real earnings for both all employees and production and nonsupervisory employees from January 2010 through December 2014.

The estimates of average weekly hours and average hourly and weekly earnings have been revised with the release of January data to reflect new employment benchmarks, and the updating of seasonal adjustment factors.

Unadjusted data have been revised from April 2013 forward.  In addition, seasonally adjusted hours and earnings series have been revised from January 2010 forward in accordance with the usual practice of revising 5 years of data.

•  Table A-1. Current and real (constant 1982-1984 dollars) earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls, seasonally adjusted
• Table A-2. Current and real (constant 1982-1984 dollars) earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls, seasonally adjusted
• Real Earnings technical note
• HTML version of the entire news release

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics