Q4 2016 Wage Growth Exceeded Expectations, Expected to Continue Upward in 2017

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that average hourly wages rose 2.9 percent in 2016, which included a strong fourth quarter where many experts “expected to see poor performance…due to uncertainty after the [presidential] election”. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) says that American wages are expected to grow an average of 3.2 percent year over year in Q1 2017.