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by twoodfin 347 days ago
That real weekly wage data is basically why Trump almost and then did get reelected in one chart.
1 comments

The more I look at that chart the stranger it gets. It feels like a good case for concluding CPI isn’t calculated properly
If you're talking about the spike in Q1 2020, there's nothing weird going on. That's from all the service workers getting laid off, which bumps up the average because they're typically lower paid, and no longer drag down the "employed" average.
Also, does it count the COVID checks?
>The usual weekly earnings data reflect only wage and salary earnings from work, not gross income from all sources. These data do not include the cash value of benefits such as employer-provided health insurance.

https://www.bls.gov/cps/definitions.htm#earnings

Why?