May 10, 2018

Wages Are No Longer Growing At All

The inflation figures for April are in, which means we can take a look at how much wages went up last month. First, here’s a broader look:

Up through 2016, wages were rising at about 1 percent per year (adjusted for inflation).

In the past 12 months, wage growth slumped to 0.13 percent. For blue-collar workers, wage growth was 0.17 percent.

In April, wages fell slightly. Wages for blue-collar workers were flat. The growth rate has been heading down, down, down.

Here’s a chart showing wage growth over the past few years. It’s totally unfair to point out the month Donald Trump was elected, but what can I do? I’m all about the facts, you know. In any case, no worries here. The CEOs and other rich folks who really elected Trump are doing great, even if the blue-collar workers who supposedly elected him aren’t getting anything out of his presidency. The Republican Party suckered them again.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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