Low-wage worker's wage relative to low-wage worker wage in 1979, 1973–2019
| Year | 10th percentile workers | |
|---|---|---|
| 1973 | 90.67 | 100 |
| 1974 | 92.92 | 100 |
| 1975 | 90.05 | 100 |
| 1976 | 93.54 | 100 |
| 1977 | 92.31 | 100 |
| 1978 | 99.18% | 100 |
| 1979 | 100.00% | 100 |
| 1980 | 93.23% | 100 |
| 1981 | 91.90% | 100 |
| 1982 | 88.21% | 100 |
| 1983 | 85.33% | 100 |
| 1984 | 83.59% | 100 |
| 1985 | 82.46% | 100 |
| 1986 | 82.77% | 100 |
| 1987 | 82.67% | 100 |
| 1988 | 83.49% | 100 |
| 1989 | 82.97% | 100 |
| 1990 | 83.49% | 100 |
| 1991 | 84.92% | 100 |
| 1992 | 85.64% | 100 |
| 1993 | 86.87% | 100 |
| 1994 | 86.15% | 100 |
| 1995 | 85.23% | 100 |
| 1996 | 84.31% | 100 |
| 1997 | 86.77% | 100 |
| 1998 | 92.21% | 100 |
| 1999 | 93.85% | 100 |
| 2000 | 93.23% | 100 |
| 2001 | 96.21% | 100 |
| 2002 | 99.18% | 100 |
| 2003 | 98.77% | 100 |
| 2004 | 97.03% | 100 |
| 2005 | 94.67% | 100 |
| 2006 | 94.05% | 100 |
| 2007 | 95.69% | 100 |
| 2008 | 96.82% | 100 |
| 2009 | 97.64% | 100 |
| 2010 | 96.82% | 100 |
| 2011 | 94.36% | 100 |
| 2012 | 92.72% | 100 |
| 2013 | 93.33% | 100 |
| 2014 | 94.15% | 100 |
| 2015 | 98.56% | 100 |
| 2016 | 99.38% | 100 |
| 2017 | 103.59% | 100 |
| 2018 | 104.10% | 100 |
| 2019 | 103.28% | 100 |
Note: Data are for the 10th-percentile worker in each year.
Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey data (EPI 2020). Wages are adjusted for inflation using the CPI-U-RS (BLS 2020a).