These are average hourly earnings across private nonfarm payroll jobs, not an individual’s pay, median wages, household income or take-home pay. Industry and workforce composition can move the average even when nobody receives a raise. Employment is a count of payroll jobs by workplace, in thousands—not unique people, resident employment or the unemployment rate.

Every series here is not seasonally adjusted. Compare the same calendar month across years; the intervening monthly paths still include seasonal variation. The CPI-U U.S. city average is a common national price-change reference. It is not state-specific inflation, a comparison of living costs between states, or your personal spending basket. No ZIP-code inflation is inferred.

“Inflation-adjusted” means hourly earnings × CPI at the end month ÷ CPI at that observation’s month. Percent changes use exact endpoints. Missing endpoints prevent the affected comparison; missing intermediate months break the chart. We never fill missing data, adjust employment for inflation, or add up state estimates to manufacture a national estimate.

National and state CES are separately produced estimates. The U.S. line uses BLS national data. Differences are descriptive, not a causal explanation, political score or statistical-significance test. National improvement can coexist with weaker regional outcomes without either record being false.

105 series · 1 missing monthly values · 0 revisions detected against the previous local capture. Data can be revised; a historical observation date is not the date the value was originally published.

Collection: state-private-paychecks-2016-2025. This regional implementation does not claim occupation-specific results.