Blue-collar wage growth under Trump sees largest increase in nearly 60 years, Treasury sec reveals on Pod Force One

New York Post ^ | June 17, 2025, 10:16 a.m. ET | Miranda Devine

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Blue-collar workers have seen real wage growth of almost two percent in the first five months of President Donald Trump’s second term, the largest increase for any administration in nearly 60 years. 

The 1.7% pay bump is in stark contrast to negative growth under Joe Biden, according to new data from the US Department of the Treasury. 

Since Richard Nixon in 1969, Trump has been the only president to record positive growth for blue-collar workers in his first five months. He also achieved 1.3% in his first term.

The recovery from a 1.7% decline recorded in Biden’s first five months, as inflation outpaced earnings, suggests a shift in economic conditions for this financially stressed segment of the workforce.

“The only other time it’s been this high was… during President Trump’s first term,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told me on the latest episode of the “Pod Force One” podcast, out Wednesday. 

“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.”

Falling inflation has driven the significant improvement in blue-collar wages, lifting workers’ take-home pay and living standards. 

Bessent says wage growth is also fueled by the president’s “emphasis on manufacturing” and commitment to remove illegal migrants from the workforce.

“Biden opened the border, and it was flooded,” said Bessent. “And for working Americans, that’s a disaster because it’s pressure on their wages.”

Blue-collar workers are seeing wage growth that hasn’t been seen in nearly 60 years.

The latest year-to-date gain in real blue-collar wage growth, from December 2024 to May 2025, is more than twice the rate of 0.8% growth in the Nixon administration.

Every other administration since has seen wage growth fall in comparable periods for blue-collar workers (defined by the Bureau of...).

[Salman]

My goodness. It's really working isn't it?

Don't let the libs take it away (again).

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Kinda makes me want to get back into the workforce again. (Well, not really!) MAGA!

Go, President Trump! GO!

Three and a half more YEARS of this ahead of us! Can our hearts take all of this WINNING? :)

[SaxxonWoods]

Yet the knotheads at Safeway are striking anyway. They never figure out how they are getting played.

[SomeCallMeTim]

ping

[anthropocene_x]

No big desperate pool of illegals for corporations to hire from?
THIS right here is why I voted for Trump!

[central_va]

I am sure some Freeper will tell us there’s a downside....