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- ⚠️CHART OF THE WEEK: US wages have been declining this century
⚠️CHART OF THE WEEK: US wages have been declining this century
Salary growth adjusted for an alternative inflation metric has materially declined.
Global Markets Investor
October 04, 2025
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🔥🔥 GLOBAL MARKETS INVESTOR PORTFOLIO — UP 53% SINCE JANUARY 2024 DURING THE MARCH-APRIL 2025 MARKET TURMOIL, MAJOR US INDEXES FELL NEARLY 20%, WHILE THE GMI PORTFOLIO GAINED OVER 5%, FIND OUT HOW BELOW:
US wages have declined -5.1% from 2001 to 2023 adjusted for True Living Cost (TLC), an alternate metric of inflation focusing on essential household expenses like housing, healthcare, groceries and transportation.
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By comparison, adjusted for Inflation CPI, wages rose +8.8% during the same period. As you already know, CPI tracks price changes for ~80,000 goods and services, including items many households rarely buy.
The Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity estimates that from 2001 to 2023, the TLC rose 30% faster than the CPI, indicating household inflation is far higher than official figures suggest.
Shockingly, TLC shows medical costs nearly TRIPLED during this time while CPI says they only doubled.
In other words, US inflation is significantly understated.
To make inflation even more accurate, everyone should calculate their own basket of goods and services they buy frequently and track the weighted average of prices over a year or another period.
Subsequently, this rise in prices should be compared to the increase in wages, income, or wealth to see the real change and determine whether purchasing power has improved or deteriorated.
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