U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Tuesday that “real wages” for blue-collar workers have increased by nearly two percent in the United States during the first five months of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Bessent shared a Treasury Department chart on Tuesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, which showed a 1.7% increase in real wages for blue-collar workers since Trump’s inauguration in January.
The Treasury Department chart shared by Bessent shows that Trump is the only president to have positive wage growth for blue-collar workers during the first five months of an administration since former President Richard Nixon in 1969. The chart also shows that blue-collar wages increased by 1.3% during Trump’s first term in the White House, compared with a 1.7% decline in real wages during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Thanks to @POTUS’s pro-growth, America First policies, real wages for hourly workers are up nearly 2% in the first five months of @realDonaldTrump’s second term — the strongest growth in 60 years,” Bessent tweeted. “No president has done that before — except President Trump in his first term. Hardworking Americans and Main Street businesses have never had a stronger ally in the @WhiteHouse.”
Commenting on the latest wage numbers of blue-collar workers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told The New York Post’s Miranda Devine on a Wednesday episode of the “Pod Force One” podcast, “The only other time it’s been this high was… during President Trump’s first term.”
“We’ve seen real wages for hourly workers, non-supervisory workers, rise almost 2% in the first five months,” Bessent added. “No president has done that before.”
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Asked why blue-collar wages have significantly increased during the first five months of Trump’s administration, Bessent said, “It’s the president’s emphasis on manufacturing.”
Bessent also told Devine that the rise in wages for blue-collar workers can be attributed to millions of illegal immigrants “coming out of the workforce” amid the 47th president’s crackdown on illegal immigration and his mass deportation operations.
“Joe Biden opened the border, and it was flooded,” Bessent told Devine. “And for working Americans, that’s a disaster because it’s pressure on their wages.”
