At last, some good news on worker wages

Indicators suggest tax cuts and a tight labor market are finally boosting pay after years of stagnation.

Recent signs suggest worker pay is finally rising after years of stagnation despite an economy that has been steadily chugging along since 2009.

The latest jobs report from the Labor Department shows that low unemployment is pushing up wages a bit.

Employers added 200,000 jobs in January and privatesector workers, on average, saw their paychecks increase nearly 3 percent, compared to a year earlier.

The change was a long time coming, and no doubt most workers won’t find the modest bump much to crow about.

Policy makers and good corporate citizens still have a lot of ground left to recover.

For starters, the great bulk of hourly workers averaged only a 2.4 percent gain, as the increases for the salaries of managers contributed to the overall findings.

And our readers might remember that under a December editorial headline “Shame on Grinch America for workers’ stagnant wages,” we bemoaned the findings from the Colorado Center on Law & Policy that Colorado’s median hourly wages were $18.92, which was about 4 percent lower when adjusted for inflation than in 2007, the last year before the horrors of the Great Recession.

The center went on to note that 2016’s median pay was 2 percent lower, after accounting for inflation, than in it had been 2000.

Michelle Webster, the center’s manager of research and policy analysis, tells us the recent gains, while encouraging, have a long way to go to make up for years of lethargy.

Still, the latest figures are a welcome enough way to start the year.

Credit where it’s due: while we were nonplussed with aspects of the Republican tax cuts passed just before Christmas, there are indications the new law — and the tight labor market — are inspiring some major companies to boost pay and other benefits.

As if to answer concerns from critics that the tax cuts might simply lift the profits of corporations and investors, several big companies immediately stepped forward.

Some, like American Airlines, AT&T, Bank of Colorado, Comcast and Home Depot, announced they would pay a special bonus of $1,000 to hourly employees. Waste Management says it will hand out $2,000 bonuses. Some companies raised starting pay for hourly workers. Wells Fargo upped its base pay to $15.

The companies listed are but a trim sampling. And no, one-time bonuses don’t erase longtime disparities, but the bonuses don’t tell the full story.

Some companies are boosting 401(k) contributions and other benefits, and finding other ways to invest more in their workforce.

The Labor Department pegs national unemployment at 4.1 percent.

Another Labor Department report found that fourthquarter pay for private-sector workers increased by 2.8 percent from a year earlier — the strongest year-over-year gain since the recession.

Tempering the better news has been the recent slide in the stock market.

It comes amid fears that the low unemployment rate as well as the extra money coming in from the tax cuts could trigger inflation and pressure the feds to boost interest rates to cool things down.

Still, modest pay raises and bonuses beat stagnant pay any day, and we’re glad to see some better news for workers developing.

Credit where it’s due: while we were nonplussed with aspects of the Republican tax cuts, the new law — and the tight labor market — are inspiring some major companies to boost pay and other benefits.