Senior economist with @InnovateEconomy. Ex-post-doc with @CpspPoverty. All good tweets are my dog. Check the link for important info:
Washington, DC
Joined September 2018
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Who I am, why I do this, and what you’ll get here: clear, honest, usable economics.
Check the linktree for more: linktr.ee/bglasner
Ben Glasner retweeted
Young people online say the economy feels terrible, while economists looking at aggregate data see a better picture. Why the disconnect? @BenGlasner and I discuss real wage growth and why economic experiences differ across generations.
Ben Glasner retweeted
Obviously there was a ton that people were frustrated with during the Biden years but it's just an uncontroversial fact that real wages were climbing into the Trump presidency and then in March and April of 2025 they stopped climbing. agglomerations.eig.org/p/the…
Ben Glasner retweeted
Great to speak with @AnnieLowrey about why the new jobs that emerge from AI may have absolutely nothing to do with AI and what the fact that our parents all think we spend our money indulgently can teach us. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1…
Ben Glasner retweeted
The last 18 months have been such an all time own-goal from the Trump admin. Could have just let real wages keep ripping. Instead:
Ben Glasner retweeted
One of the many intriguing findings from @BenGlasner and @CardiffGarcia on real wage growth is that while over the span of the past four-and-a-half decades the 90th percentile wage has pulled away from the pack, it hasn't done so at a constant rate.
Wage inequality has spiked during the particular periods when overall economic performance has been weakest.
Top earners raced ahead of median earners during the the period Ben and Cardiff call the First Long Wage Stagnation, which persisted from 1982 to 1996.
By August 1996, the 90th percentile wage had risen to 112 indexed against December 1982, but the median wage was up to just a measly 101.
The IT Boom of the late-1990s was a burst of broad-based wage growth. (This is good.)
But then the Second Long Wage Stagnation set in.
By October 2014, the 90th percentile wage had risen to 113 indexed against March 2001, but the median wage was up to just 105.
The late-2010s recovery was another spurt of rising wages for all, probably the best across the whole period. The median wage rose to 110 indexed against November 2014 by the start of the pandemic, while for the 90th percentile the rise was to a just-modestly higher 112.
What's happened since then is strange, though. The 90-50 ratio has spread again, but the 50-10 ratio has closed.
As of our latest numbers, both 90th percentile and 10th percentile wages are up to 108 indexed to January 2022, but the median is up to just 103.
xitter.cf/i/status/2108567445665…
Ben Glasner retweeted
A new survey from @InnovateEconomy and @EchelonInsights finds that the Trump administration’s tariff agenda has become significantly more unpopular over the past year, fueled by a collapse of support among blue collar workers.
Ben Glasner retweeted
It remains shocking to me that we have seen a full scale reversal of the post-COVID trend in wage growth.
Since March 2025, real wages are down across the distribution. Only the 25th is up (+1%). let’s look at how odd this is in the context of the last 40+ years.
@CardiffGarcia
Ben Glasner retweeted
Icymi yesterday, check out our post on the right lessons of the last four decades of US real wage growth. We really tried to be careful in our presentation and interpretations, and we love how it came out. See Ben’s thread below and click through to the link in his second tweet.
It remains shocking to me that we have seen a full scale reversal of the post-COVID trend in wage growth.
Since March 2025, real wages are down across the distribution. Only the 25th is up (+1%). let’s look at how odd this is in the context of the last 40+ years.
@CardiffGarcia
Ben Glasner retweeted
America LOVES small business. Even more than it loves the military, or the Supreme Court.
But what actually makes a business “small”? Do we … know?
Ben Glasner retweeted
This is a huge story: KKR, one of the largest PE firms in the world, bans non-compete agreements across their portfolio companies for employees making $100k or less.
To my knowledge there is no precedent for a major player in finance or private equity taking such a step.
Ben Glasner retweeted
I've been noodling on my Great Decompression thesis for a year, flipping from the 80th percentile to the 90th as my focal point, flopping from worker earnings to family earnings, and so on and so forth.
Today the idea gets clarity, thanks to the masterful data work and cogent distillation of @CardiffGarcia and @BenGlasner.
Cardiff and Ben present a quantitative mosaic that, I genuinely believe, explains the American politics of the past decade and a half.
Indexed to December of the recession-riddled 1982, the median wage has climbed in real terms, but it has been substantially outpaced by the real-wage growth at the 90th percentile.
While when discussing the Great Decompression I've looked almost exclusively at the upper half of the wage distribution, Cardiff and Ben unveil another reason why median earners might be discontented:
Not only are median earners being left in the dust by those at the top, they're also being caught up to by those at the bottom.
Paradoxical as this is, the median wage has lagged not only the 90th percentile, but also the 25 and the 10th. (And adding insult to injury, the 75th, too.) Check out Cardiff and Ben's six interwoven stories on real wage growth @InnovateEconomy.
It remains shocking to me that we have seen a full scale reversal of the post-COVID trend in wage growth.
Since March 2025, real wages are down across the distribution. Only the 25th is up (+1%). let’s look at how odd this is in the context of the last 40+ years.
@CardiffGarcia
Since 1982, 90/50 is up 27% and 90/10 up 16%, while 50/10 is down 9%: the bottom closed on the middle while the top pulled away from both.
The lesson: wage inequality appears to expand during times of stagnation, and growth is the recipe for stabilizing it or even fighting it.
The code and data to replicate every figure are here: github.com/EIG-Research/EIG-…
@CardiffGarcia, myself, and others at @InnovateEconomy are all going to be crunching the numbers on the other interesting/informative cuts soon. So hit that subscribe on Agglomerations
