The White House announced this week that within the first 150 days of the second Trump administration, blue-collar wages rose at the highest rate in 60 years.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the announcement Tuesday on X.
"Thanks to @POTUS's pro-growth, America First policies, real wages for hourly workers are up nearly 2% in the first five months of @realDonaldTrump's second term — the strongest growth in 60 years," Bessent wrote, and included a chart comparing the real-wage hourly growth in the first five months of the nine previous presidencies to Trump's second term.
"No president has done that before — except President Trump in his first term," Bessent added. "Hardworking Americans and Main Street businesses have never had a stronger ally in the @WhiteHouse.”
Since Inauguration Day, average hourly earnings for blue-collar workers increased 1.7% to $31.18, from $30.67 in December, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
As a further boost, inflation has continued to plummet since Trump took office, with the Consumer Price Index dropping a half a point from 2.9% in December 2024 to 2.4% in May.
In a case of bad timing, a U.S. senator called for a federal minimum wage hike a week before the White House announcement. Significantly, it was made by Sen. Josh Hawley, a conservative Missouri Republican.
His proposal, called the "Higher Wages for American Workers Act," would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour beginning in 2026. Thereafter it would automatically adjust each year to align with inflation.
"For decades, working Americans have seen their wages flatline. One major culprit of this is the failure of the federal minimum wage to keep up with the economic reality facing hard-working Americans every day," Hawley told CBS News. "This bipartisan legislation would ensure that workers across America benefit from higher wages."
The federal minimum wage was last set in 2009 at $7.25 an hour.
But the White House’s announcement this week proved that the free market system is much more efficient than anything coming from Congress.
They want $15 an hour; the free market handed them $31.18.
Granted, that $31.18 figure is an average, not a minimum, but the point is, a free market is better at setting prices and wages than lawmakers arguing about it in Congress — or someone sitting in the White House.
An attempt to control the price of anything generally results in failure. Former President Richard Nixon announced during an Aug. 15, 1971 nationwide TV broadcast that “I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States.”
Despite the fact that Nixon’s decision ended “in utter failure,” just as Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman had predicted, Nixon did it again the following year. What resulted was even worse.
“Ranchers stopped shipping their cattle to the market, farmers drowned their chickens, and consumers emptied the shelves of supermarkets.” wrote Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw in “The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy.”
Congress needs to trust the free market. The cost of housing is set by the free market, as is food, clothing, automobiles and gasoline. Set the price too high and no one will buy it; too low and the seller goes out of business.
The same principle applies to wages, but in reverse. Set them too low and you’ll have no employees; too high and you’ll go out of business.
There is one thing, however, that’s not set by the free market — interest rates.
The Federal Reserve sets the prime interest rate, the rate at which commercial banks charge their most creditworthy customers, and from that, all other rates of interest are determined.
President Trump is currently at loggerheads with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who he claims “is costing our country hundreds of billions of dollars” by his refusal to lower the prime rate from its current 7.5% this week, for the fourth time this year. The next meeting is scheduled July 30.
Former Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul has long promoted getting rid of the Federal Reserve, and wrote a book, End the Fed, in 2009.
It may be time to have the market set interest rates as it does everything else. But whether we do or not, Congress should take to heart a famous observation of former President Ronald Reagan: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
Congress has to learn to trust the free market. Each time they try to help, they just make things worse.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and is a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He's also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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