Economics
Lowest-Paid Americans Lead Wage Gains as Job Market Tightens
The Fed has been looking for evidence that improvement in the labor market isn’t just confined to jobs in high-paying industries requiring specialized skills.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
From the drive-through clerk at McDonald’s to the greeter at Wal-Mart, unskilled workers are getting raises, signaling a broadening of labor market gains that could give Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reason to begin raising interest rates this year.
Average hourly earnings in industries paying less than $12.50 an hour a year ago rose 3.2 percent in the 12 months through April, about 1 percentage point more than wage growth for the job market as a whole, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.