According to the U.S. Department of Labor, wages were up 1.5% in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 4.2% from this time in 2020.
In a recent conversation with WLWT's Courtis Fuller, Michael Jones, an associate professor of economics at the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business, said the trend of corporations raising their internal minimum wage is not a fresh development but started with Amazon in 2018. Jones noted other companies had to match these measures to attract the same talent.
"Now if you are a smaller company, like a restaurant, in which labor costs make up a large percentage of your business, this is making it very difficult to compete," Jones said.
Jones also said inflation is outpacing wage increases, leading to purchasing power being lower than it was a year ago.
Featured image: UC economics professor Michael Jones. Screenshot courtesy of WLWT video.
