The current ‘recovery’ hasn’t done much for wages of college grads and has done nothing for black college grads: Real average wage growth, workers with a bachelor's degree, 1996–2000 and 2015–2019

Demographic 1996–2000 2015–2019
Men 10.9% 7.8%
Women 9.8% 3.0%
White 10.6% 6.6%
Black 11.5% -0.3%

 

Note: In order to include data from the first half of 2019, all years refer to the 12-month period ending in June. Sample includes workers with a bachelor’s degree only.

Source: Reproduced from Figure A in Elise Gould and Valerie Wilson, Wage Growth Is Weak for a Tight Labor Market—and the Pace of Wage Growth Is Uneven Across Race and Gender, Economic Policy Institute, August 2019.

Source: Reproduced from Figure A in Elise Gould and Valerie Wilson, Wage Growth is Weak for a Tight Labor Market—and the Pace of Wage Growth is Uneven Across Race and Gender, Economic Policy Institute, August 2019. Data are from  authors’ analysis of Current Population Survey basic monthly microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau.

View the underlying data on epi.org.