Here.

The "average hourly earnings" figures, with which the media/far left is preoccupied, measure wages that are paid out to production workers and to non-supervisorial workers in the services industries. In other words, the jobs in which people literally are on the production lines, assembling component parts, or the ones in which they are digging foundations or hauling lumber around on the construction sites. The upshot? Because managerial-level positions are left out of the mix (e.g., construction forepersons, as opposed to just journeymen trades) 20 percent of the total W-2 workforce is not surveyed!

Earlier today, however, the BEA (the same agency that issues GDP numbers) came out with their comprehensive review of all wages and salary paid out to all W-2 employees, throughout the economy. The results?

From July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004, aggregate wages paid out to all W-2 employees increased at a rate of . . . . 4.77 percent! And, get this: if we strip out government from the mix and focus only on the poor, disgruntled workers in the private sector, year-over-year wages increased at the rate of . . . 5.32 percent!