In recent months, we've seen more and more headlines about rising wages for America's frontline workers. But these headlines often fail to tell the whole story. While wages have risen for a large amount of essential workers, inflation is at its highest level in nearly 40 years. As a result, many of the employees that have helped us through the pandemic are counting their real hourly wage increases in pennies.
In a new study, Molly Kinder, Katie Bach, and Laura Stateler analyze wages for U.S. hourly workers at 13 of the largest and most profitable retail, grocery, and fast food companies in America. Among their findings: the country has a shortage of good jobs, not workers.
Also in this edition, we look at the pandemic's impact on U.S. birth rates, who is returning to work, and how America's economic recovery differs from other wealthy nations.
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