Very few others are saying it, so I will. Congratulations, Mr. President.

[progree]

41. Yup, I hear you. The BLS numbers, even for "production and non-supervisory employees" are, well,

The BLS "production and non-supervisory employees" are an average. Even though they don't include CEOs or any kinds of managers, executives, supervisors, or business owners, they still include some highly paid employees, including doctors, lawyers, and engineers. These skew the average way above the median (the median is the 50% line where half of all employees make more and half make less -- the guy/gal right in the middle).

A median would be a better gauge for the reality of most working people than an average that includes people making several several times the median.

[font color = blue]"My housemate got a raise to $9.75 and then they cut his hours by 6 hrs a week".[/font]

That sucks. I don't see much change in the average number of hours worked over time of payroll employees in the BLS statistics, probably because on average people make up for it with a 2nd job or more hours on the second job. Or a 3rd job. That holds up the average hours worked per week statistic, but doesn't include the time, expense, and hassle commuting between jobs (argghhhh!). That's not in the BLS statistics.