What Is “True Weekly Earnings”?

The True Weekly Earnings (TWE), as defined by the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), measures the weekly earnings of all members of the workforce — including part time and jobless who are seeking work.

‍Using data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),we calculate the median earnings of everyone who is employed or actively seeking employment. Thus, we take the median earnings of the whole U.S. labor force as defined by the BLS.

By comparison, the BLS headline numbers only include those who are employed at full-time jobs. Thus, if a low-income worker moves from full time to part time, or becomes unemployed, the BLS metric will report that earnings have risen, giving a false sense that earnings are getting better. TWE, on the other hand, gives policymakers access to a more comprehensive indicator of how the job market is performing as a whole.

Note: Both LISEP and BLS exclude the self-employed from their sample for measurement reasons.

For a more in-depth explanation of True Weekly Earnings, please reference this white paper.