Average hourly earnings

Average hourly earnings (AHE) measure gross pay per paid hour for private nonfarm employees in the United States, overtime included but benefits excluded. Drawn from the survey of businesses, they are published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics with the NFP, at 8:30 a.m. New York time, which is 2:30 p.m. in Paris most of the year, as month-over-month and year-over-year changes. Together with the Employment Cost Index (ECI), they are one of the links between employment and inflation: accelerating wages can keep service prices rising, since labor is a major cost in services. If they grow more slowly than the CPI, purchasing power falls; if faster, they support consumption. A classic trap is the composition effect: in April 2020, the average jumped because the jobs lost were mostly low-paid. Step-by-step reading: the guide to economic releases; upcoming releases: the economic calendar.