Wages a Balm for U.S. Workers Facing Payroll-Tax Shock
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An improving job market is boosting wages and providing needed relief just as every American worker gets hit with a tax increase.
Hourly earnings climbed 0.3 percent on average in December for a second month, the biggest back-to-back increase since the economic recovery began in mid-2009, Labor Department figures showed Jan. 4. Combined with a lengthening of the workweek, that brought the average weekly paycheck to $818.69, up 1.2 percent from October and the steepest two-month gain since February-March 2007, before the recession began.