Blue-collar workers have seen real wage growth of almost two percent in the first five months of President Donald Trump’s second term, the largest increase for any administration in nearly 60 years.
The 1.7% pay bump is in stark contrast to negative growth under Joe Biden, according to new data from the US Department of the Treasury.
Since Richard Nixon in 1969, Trump has been the only president to record positive growth for blue-collar workers in his first five months. He also achieved 1.3% in his first term.
The latest year-to-date gain in real blue-collar wage growth, from December 2024 to May 2025, is more than twice the rate of 0.8% growth in the Nixon administration.
Every other administration since has seen wage growth fall in comparable periods for blue-collar workers (defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as nonsupervisory and production workers).
Barack Obama presided over a decline of 0.3% in real blue-collar wage growth in 2009, Bill Clinton (1993) and George W. Bush (2001) each saw a 0.6% decline, Ronald Reagan (1981) saw the sector’s wage growth fall 0.9%, and George H.W. Bush (1989) registered a 3.0% drop. Under Carter (1977), blue-collar wages stagnated with zero growth.
- Article Source:
New York Post
- Photo: Christopher Burns / unsplash.com
