Blue-collar workers’ real wages see biggest boost in 60 years

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed the numbers during an interview with the New York Post, where the real wages of blue-collar workers have increased 1.7 percent in the first five months under the Trump administration.

"The only other time it’s been this high was… during President Trump’s first term,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “We’ve seen real wages for hourly workers, non-supervisory workers, rise almost 2% in the first five months. … No president has done that before.”

Improvements in real wages have been bolstered by the falling inflation rates, which have allowed for workers to have better take-home pay as well as living standards. Bessent also said that the increase in wages is also in part due to Trump's “emphasis on manufacturing” as well as deportations of illegal immigrants. “Biden opened the border, and it was flooded,” Bessent said. “And for working Americans, that’s a disaster because it’s pressure on their wages.”

A chart displaying the numbers posted by the Treasury Secretary showed that under former President Joe Biden, real wages for blue-collar workers fell around 1.7 percent. Every other administration displayed on the chart saw real wages fall or remain the same, with the exception of Trump's first term, as well as under President Richard Nixon.

The news comes as the Trump administration as well as the Congressional leadership in Congress is trying to get the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed to maintain the 2017 Trump tax cuts as well as a number of other agenda items that Trump has said will give a "double whammy" of lower inflation and higher wages.

The White House said in a press release that the administration is “just getting started with pro-growth, pro-prosperity policies that finally put America First.”