The living standard was rising steadily, but low wages continued.
They have jobs, but most wages and benefits are stuck or continue to drop.
Indeed, even if recession strikes, wages will almost certainly continue to rise, as they have in every recent downturn.
That provides no room for prices to fall if wages continue to rise anywhere near their current 4 percent clip.
But with the unemployment rate still lower than it typically is at the end of a recession, wages have continued to rise.
Meanwhile, American workers' wages continued to rise in the second quarter faster than inflation.
The wages and the expenses continue, but business has dropped way off.
The brighter outlook comes even though wages and consumer spending continued to fall.
Workers are taking home real pay gains as wages continue rising faster than inflation.
The state's wages and personal incomes continue to grow faster than the national average.