Yahoo Finance
The trick is finding one that is true, flattering, and narrow enough that nobody checks what sits next to it.
The government publishes dozens of pay measures every month, covering hourly and weekly pay, managers and rank-and-file staff, factory floors and restaurant kitchens, with many of them also adjusted for inflation.
In a good year, most of those measures point in the same direction.
In a rough year, they split apart, and whoever holds the microphone gets to choose which one you hear about.
This has been a rough year for your grocery and gas budget.
Gasoline costs 27.4% more than it did a year ago, and the Federal Reserve just raised interest rates for the first time since 2023.
For most households, that combination adds up to a paycheck that buys a little less than it did last summer.
So when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went looking for good news about American wages on Monday, Sept.
He found two numbers that still look great, and both belong to people who build things for a living.
Economists call what is left over "real" wages, and it is the closest thing the government has to a measure of whether your paycheck is truly growing.
Right now, that measure is flashing yellow.
Real average hourly earnings for all private-sector employees fell 0.3% from August 2025 to August 2026, according to theBureau of Labor Statistics(BLS).
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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