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Current Employment Statistics (CES0500000013) · Average hourly earnings of all employees, 1982-84 dollars, total private, seasonally adjusted

What are real average hourly earnings in the US?

The real average hourly earnings of all private employees was $11.24 in the month ended , down 0.7% from a year earlier (preliminary).

Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84, seasonally adjusted, each month

March 2006 to September 2026Seasonally adjusted, as published

Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84, seasonally adjusted, each month (March 2006 to September 2026), recessions shaded
Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84, seasonally adjusted, each month (September 2016 to September 2026), recessions shaded
Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84, seasonally adjusted, each month (September 2024 to September 2026)

Shaded bands are US recessions as the National Bureau of Economic Research dates them: to , to .

Shaded bands are US recessions as the National Bureau of Economic Research dates them: to .

Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84, change from a year earlier, each month (ours)

March 2006 to September 2026Ours, from the published values

Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84, change from a year earlier, each month (ours) (March 2006 to September 2026), recessions shaded
Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84, change from a year earlier, each month (ours) (September 2016 to September 2026), recessions shaded
Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84, change from a year earlier, each month (ours) (September 2024 to September 2026)

Shaded bands are US recessions as the National Bureau of Economic Research dates them: to , to .

Shaded bands are US recessions as the National Bureau of Economic Research dates them: to .

Each point is one month of the series as the source publishes it, or a change worked out from those values (ours). The US recessions are shaded. Pointing at the chart shows the month and the value.

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Inspect and compare dates

The newest month beside the one before it and the nearest ones a year, five and ten years earlier. The last ten years are in the table under "The numbers behind the chart".

MeasureLatestThe month beforeA year earlierFive years earlierTen years earlier
Month
Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84$11.24$11.30$11.32$11.31$10.69
Change over a year−0.7%−0.3%+0.8%−0.4%+1.1%

The table scrolls sideways; the first column stays in place.

Observed .

Right now

The real average hourly earnings of all private employees was $11.24 in September 2026, the lowest since May 2026.

Over a year it is down 0.7% (ours). The source marks this value preliminary.

See every month of the last ten years

ChangeOurs

PeriodThenChange
One month$11.30 in −0.5%
Three months$11.30 in −0.5%
Twelve months$11.32 in −0.7%
Five years$11.31 in −0.6%
Ten years$10.69 in +5.1%

In historyOurs

The real average hourly earnings of all private employees of $11.24 in was higher than in 206 of the 245 other months since , the same in 3 and lower in 36.

Highest since : $11.73 in . Lowest since : $9.86 in .

AverageOurs

Average since : $10.669 (ours, a plain mean of the 246 months).

Understanding the real average hourly earnings of all private employees

Where it stands today

The real average hourly earnings of all private employees was $11.24 in September 2026.

What does the real average hourly earnings of all private employees measure?

Average hourly earnings are the dollars an hour that employers on private payrolls pay their employees, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counts them in the Current Employment Statistics survey. Real earnings take the rise in prices out of them. BLS publishes the real series itself, for every month in dollars of 1982 to 1984, the base of the consumer price index, so that months are compared at the prices of the same years. It begins in March 2006, when the BLS series of average hourly earnings of all employees begins.

Read more

What 500metrics adds: the change over one month, three months, a year and five years, and the highest and lowest value since the series begins.

The numbers behind the chart

What was the real average hourly earnings of all private employees in each month?The last ten years, 119 months, newest first; the chart and the file have every month since Mar 2006
Real average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, in dollars of 1982-84, seasonally adjusted, by month, newest first (Dollars an hour, in dollars of 1982-84; the change ours)
MonthValueChange over a year
$11.24−0.7%
$11.30−0.3%
$11.31−0.1%
$11.30−0.1%
$11.23−0.8%
$11.25−0.3%
$11.31+0.2%
$11.38+1.2%
$11.38+1.2%
$11.35+1.0%
$11.38+1.2%
$11.32+0.8%
$11.33+1.1%
$11.32+1.2%
$11.31+1.2%
$11.32+1.6%
$11.28+1.6%
$11.29+1.8%
$11.24+1.3%
$11.24+1.0%
$11.24+1.2%
$11.25+1.4%
$11.23+1.4%
$11.23+1.4%
Show 95 more rows
MonthValueChange over a year
$11.21+1.3%
$11.19+0.7%
$11.18+0.9%
$11.14+0.9%
$11.10+0.5%
$11.09+0.6%
$11.10+0.9%
$11.13+1.3%
$11.11+0.8%
$11.09+1.0%
$11.08+1.0%
$11.07+0.7%
$11.07+0.7%
$11.11+1.3%
$11.08+1.6%
$11.04+0.2%
$11.04−0.4%
$11.02−0.3%
$11.00−1.1%
$10.99−1.7%
$11.02−1.4%
$10.98−2.0%
$10.97−2.6%
$10.99−2.8%
$10.99−2.7%
$10.97−2.7%
$10.91−3.3%
$11.02−2.7%
$11.08−2.2%
$11.05−2.5%
$11.12−2.5%
$11.18−1.8%
$11.18−2.0%
$11.20−1.4%
$11.26−0.8%
$11.31−0.4%
$11.29−0.7%
$11.28−0.9%
$11.28−1.3%
$11.33−2.5%
$11.33−3.4%
$11.33+1.8%
$11.40+3.5%
$11.39+3.8%
$11.41+4.0%
$11.36+3.4%
$11.35+3.4%
$11.35+3.4%
$11.37+3.5%
$11.38+3.8%
$11.43+4.3%
$11.62+6.4%
$11.73+7.7%
$11.13+1.9%
$11.01+0.7%
$10.97+0.5%
$10.97+0.6%
$10.99+1.2%
$10.98+1.4%
$10.98+1.4%
$10.99+1.7%
$10.96+1.6%
$10.96+1.8%
$10.92+1.5%
$10.89+1.3%
$10.92+1.5%
$10.93+2.0%
$10.92+1.7%
$10.90+1.4%
$10.86+1.2%
$10.83+0.7%
$10.83+0.7%
$10.81+0.5%
$10.790.0%
$10.77+0.1%
$10.76+0.2%
$10.75+0.3%
$10.76+0.5%
$10.72+0.4%
$10.74+0.7%
$10.75+0.6%
$10.73+0.3%
$10.75+0.4%
$10.75+0.6%
$10.76+0.7%
$10.79+0.8%
$10.76+0.8%
$10.74+0.6%
$10.72+0.4%
$10.71+0.2%
$10.68−0.1%
$10.67−0.1%
$10.69+0.7%
$10.70+0.8%
$10.71+1.0%
What do these figures leave out, and how are they cited?Limits, dates and how to cite

What this number cannot tell you

  • The earnings are those of all employees on private payrolls, not only production and nonsupervisory employees, and they are an average: they say nothing about any one worker.
  • BLS revises the earnings of the latest months in the next two releases and again each year, so the newest value can change.
  • The amounts are in the dollars of 1982 to 1984. They are not dollars of today, and are lower than the earnings as paid because prices have risen since then.
  • A month for which BLS has no value (October 2025, which it did not collect because of the lapse in appropriations) is a gap in the chart.
  • The values are those BLS publishes. The changes and the highest and lowest values are ours, worked out from them.

Observed . Checked .

How to cite this

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics, Average hourly earnings of all employees, 1982-84 dollars, total private, seasonally adjusted, through September 2026. Compiled by 500metrics, "What are real average hourly earnings in the US?", https://500metrics.com/real-hourly-earnings.

Can the data be downloaded?real-hourly-earnings.csv

Download the full history as CSV: 246 rows, to , 4,480 bytes.

Our text and compilation: CC BY 4.0.

Recession dates from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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