Democrat presidential hopefuls on Wednesday night falsely claimed the economy during Donald Trump’s presidency has only benefited the wealthy.
“It’s doing great for a thinner and thinner slice at the top,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said in her answer to the very first question of the Democrat candidates’ debate. “When you’ve got a government, when you’ve got an economy, that does great for those with money and isn’t doing great for everyone else, that is corruption pure and simple.”
“This economy is not working for average Americans,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said.
In fact, the strongest economy in more than a decade and the extension of the expansion to nearly the longest on record is benefiting to Americans of every income bracket.
For several months now, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employment data have shown significant income growth for working-class Americans. Unemployment is at the lowest level in nearly 50 years. Unemployment for blacks, Hispanics, and Asians is at or near multi-decade lows.
Wages in May for nonsupervisory employees were up 3.4 percent year over year, the tenth consecutive month at or above three percent. That’s all the more impressive because inflation is running around 1.5 percent. Prior to Trump’s presidency, average wages have not risen by more than three percent since 2009.
Last Christmas, store clerks were paid on average 5.5 percent more than the year before, the largest annual gain since 1998. And the gains have continued, with retail employees seeing a 3.8 percent year over year gain in April’s data. Restaurant and hotel workers in April were paid 4.7 percent more than the year before.
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