wages

President Donald Trump said US workers are already benefitting from his economic policies.

“The average American worker has already seen a $500 wage increase this year,” Trump said during an August 26 Cabinet meeting.

Trump’s White House cherry-picked data that favours a higher earnings gain. Experts prefer a different measure, based on a larger sample size, that shows a smaller increase.

How the White House calculated a $500 pay bump

When we asked the White House press office for Trump’s data source, a spokesperson pointed us to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, seasonally adjusted.

This data shows that median weekly earnings rose from $1,185 in the fourth quarter of 2024 to $1,206 in the second quarter of 2025, which closely aligns with Trump’s second term in office.

Because those figures represent weekly earnings, we multiplied them by 26 to see how much a typical worker gained during the half-year period. Multiplying by 26 weeks produces a cumulative $546 rise in wages. This measure does not include part-time workers, who account for about a quarter of the workforce, or account for inflation.

Experts consider other measures more reliable

Economists said the White House’s chosen dataset isn’t as reliable as a different set – and the more reliable study shows a smaller wage increase.

The other dataset – average weekly earnings of all private-sector employees – is produced monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Over the first six months of 2025, this statistic found a cumulative pay increase of about $121. That’s about one-quarter of what Trump said.

Several economists told us this is the preferred statistic for measuring wages, because it’s based on the Current Employment Statistics programme, which surveys 121,000 businesses and government agencies, collectively representing approximately 631,000 worksites. By comparison, the Current Population Survey, from which the White House’s data is drawn, samples 60,000 eligible households.

“I always trust the payroll series more,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the centre-right American Action Forum.

Dean Baker, cofounder of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research, agrees, saying the data in the smaller household survey “is highly erratic”.

In addition, according to this dataset, the wage rise during President Joe Biden’s last two quarters was $884. This undercuts the notion that Trump’s gains have been unusually high.

Factoring in inflation

Because both of these measures fail to factor in inflation, they overestimate workers’ gains.

Another statistic, median usual weekly inflation-adjusted earnings for full-time wage and salary workers, 16 years and over, also from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, is produced quarterly using the smaller sample-size household survey and takes inflation into account.

By this metric, workers’ pay increased by $1 per week between the final quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025.

Multiplied by 26 weeks, this adds up to a $26 pay rise after inflation.

Our ruling

Trump said: “The average American worker has already seen a $500 wage increase this year.”

The White House cited wage statistics that show median wages for full-time workers rose by a cumulative $546 during the first two quarters of 2025.

A different set of statistics – one that economists consider more accurate because it’s drawn from a much larger sample that includes full- and part-time workers, and with less volatility – shows a much smaller rise in the average US worker’s pay over that period, about $121 over six months.

When inflation is factored in, full-time workers’ take-home pay rose by even less – by about $26 during the first six months of 2025.

The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it Half True.

Aug. 31 (UPI) — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said Sunday the government will make some changes — specifically to compensation officials receive — in an effort to appease protesters concerned with rising cost of living and unemployment rate.

The announcement comes after about a week of protests across the nation, some of which have turned violent. Some rioters have targeted lawmakers’ homes with looting and vandalization, The New York Times reported.

The demonstrations started after members of parliament received an increase of $3,030 in housing allowances, many times the country’s minimum wage.

At least five people have died and hundreds have been injured. In Jakarta, a 21-year-old ride-sharing driver was killed by a police vehicle during a demonstration Thursday, the BBC reported, adding a denunciation of police brutality to protesters’ list of grievances.

Subianto said Sunday that federal lawmakers would receive a cut in their allowances. He said he understood the public’s concerns about the economy.

Amid the protests, Subianto canceled a trip to a security conference Saturday in China.

Public spending cuts across six African countries have resulted in the incomes of health and education workers falling by up to 50 percent in five years, leaving them struggling to make ends meet, according to international NGO ActionAid.

The Human Cost of Public Sector Cuts in Africa report published on Tuesday found that 97 percent of the healthcare workers it surveyed in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi and Nigeria could not cover their basic needs like food and rent with their wages.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to blame for these countries’ failing public systems, the report said, as the agency advises governments to significantly cut public spending to pay back foreign debt. As the debt crisis rapidly worsens across the Global South, more than three-quarters of all low-income countries in the world are spending more on debt servicing than healthcare.

“The debt crisis and the IMF’s insistence on cuts to public services in favour of foreign debt repayments have severely hindered investments in healthcare and education across Africa. For example, in 2024, Nigeria allocated only 4% of its national revenue to health, while a staggering 20.1% went toward repaying foreign debt,” said ActionAid Nigeria’s Country Director Andrew Mamedu.

The report highlighted how insufficient budgets in the healthcare system had resulted in chronic shortages and a decline in the quality of service.

Women also appear to be disproportionally affected.

“In the past month, I have witnessed four women giving birth at home due to unaffordable hospital fees. The community is forced to seek vaccines and immunisation in private hospitals since they are not available in public hospitals. Our [local] health services are limited in terms of catering for pregnant and lactating women,” said a healthcare worker from Kenya, who  ActionAid identified only as Maria.

Medicines for malaria – which remains a leading cause of death across the African continent, especially in young children and pregnant women – are now 10 times more expensive at private facilities, the NGO said. Millions don’t have access to lifesaving healthcare due to long travel distances, rising fees and a medical workforce shortage.

“Malaria is an epidemic in our area [because medication is now beyond the reach of many]. Five years ago, we could buy [antimalarial medication] for 50 birrs ($0.4), but now it costs more than 500 birr ($4) in private health centres,” a community member from Muyakela Kebele in Ethiopia, identified only as Marym, told ActionAid.

‘Delivering quality education is nearly impossible’

The situation is equally dire in education, as budget cuts have led to failing public education systems crippled by rising costs, a shortage of learning materials and overcrowded classrooms.

Teachers report being overwhelmed by overcrowded classrooms, with some having to manage more than 200 students. In addition, about 87 percent of teachers said they lacked basic classroom materials, with 73 percent saying they paid for the materials themselves.

Meanwhile, teachers’ wages have been gradually falling, with 84 percent reporting a 10-15 percent drop in their income over the past five years.

“I often struggle to put enough food on the table,” said a teacher from Liberia, identified as Kasor.

Four of the six countries included in the report are spending less than the recommended one-fifth of their national budget on education, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

“I now believe teaching is the least valued profession. With over 200 students in my class and inadequate teaching and learning materials, delivering quality education is nearly impossible,” said a primary school teacher in Malawi’s Rumphi District, identified as Maluwa.

Action Aid said its report shows that the consequences of IMF-endorsed policies are far-reaching. Healthcare workers and educators are severely limited in the work they can do, which has direct consequences on the quality of services they can provide, it said.

“The debt crisis and drive for austerity is amplified for countries in the Global South and low-income countries, especially due to an unfair global economic system held in place by outdated institutions, such as the IMF,” said Roos Saalbrink, the global economic justice lead at ActionAid International. “This means the burden of debt falls on those most marginalised – once again. This must end.”