Real median weekly earnings under Ronald Reagan

What the worker in the exact middle of the full-time pay distribution takes home in a week, after inflation.

Over 1981-01-20 to 1989-01-19, measured in 1982-84 CPI Adjusted Dollars:

Term average

319.28 1982-84 CPI Adjusted Dollars

At the start

311 1982-84 CPI Adjusted Dollars

At the end

323 1982-84 CPI Adjusted Dollars

Change

+12 1982-84 CPI Adjusted Dollars

Low

309 1982-84 CPI Adjusted Dollars (1981-07-01)

High

331 1982-84 CPI Adjusted Dollars (1986-10-01)

Coverage

100% (32 observations)

Reading this series over a presidential term

A median, not an average: very high earners do not pull it up. The series begins in 1979, so terms that ended before then have no value for this metric and will be dropped or renormalized depending on your “missing metric” setting.

Full-time workers only, and earnings only — no benefits, no self-employment, no household income. Who is employed changes the median on its own: if low-paid jobs disappear first in a downturn, the median of those still working can rise while no one gets a raise.

These are the observed values over the window above, and nothing more. This site does not say which direction is better, and none of this is a claim that Ronald Reagan caused the number to move.

What Real median weekly earnings measures · Ronald Reagan: the whole record · Chart it · Compare with another president · The source at FRED