The lowest-wage workers had the strongest wage growth during the pandemic: Real wage growth across the wage distribution, 2019–2024

Wage percentile Wage growth (%)
10th 15.3%
20th 11.4%
30th 7.4%
40th 6.4%
50th 5.8%
60th 5.3%
70th 4.6%
80th 4.8%
90th 6.9%
Economic Policy Institute

Source: EPI analysis of the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata, EPI Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.61 (2025a), https://microdata.epi.org

View the underlying data on epi.org.