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The Inequality of Declining Wages During the Recovery

The Inequality of Declining Wages During the Recovery – National Employment Law Project Fact Sheet, July 2013. “A previous NELP analysis found that while job losses during the recession were heavily concentrated in mid-wage occupations, the early recovery was led by employment growth in lower-paying occupations. This fact sheet turns from analyzing employment to analyzing  occupational wage trends during the recovery to date. For the period 2009 to 2012 we find the following:

  • Averaged across all occupations, real median hourly wages declined by 2.8 percent.
  • Lower-wage and mid-wage occupations saw significantly bigger declines in their real median wages than did higher- wage occupations.
  • Real median wages fell by 5.0 percent or more in five of the top ten lower-wage occupations: restaurant cooks, food preparation workers, home health aides, personal care aides, and maids and housekeepers.”

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