According to economists now is the best time to ask for an increase. 

“It is a workers’ market. Workers have the power right now,” says Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist at S&P Global. Will it continue through 2022?” My guess is no. It will hold steady for the employees up to mid-year.

Bovino states that the “Great Resignation“and sector-specific labor shortages within industries like leisure and hospitality mean that workers can — and should — ask for more. 

“The people who left the workforceThey don’t seem to be coming back. A lot of that is tied to retirees — the pandemic encouraged more older workers to retire younger,” she explains. “So [workers]At this moment in time, the workers are the ones making decisions. The workers are able to negotiate a great deal, including wages and how frequently they need to visit the office each week, depending on the work type, bonuses, or other benefits.

“I suspect that it’ll be a worker’s market through the first half of 2022…. It will all change eventually,” she said.

Over the past several decades, U.S. workers’ wages have been stable grown sluggishly. Also, several monthsThe inflation rate has been increasing and limiting the amount of money workers have available to purchase with their pay. 

Erica Groshen of Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, senior economist and ex-commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, stated that “for about 40 years the median real wages in the U.S. have been pretty stagnant.” CNBC Make It! in November. In general, wage inflation is lower than the consumer price inflation. These conditions may be more favorable than ever before for it to occur… In some ways the chickens have come home for lack of real wage rise over this long time.

Groshen states that asking for a raise is a good idea. For a long period, people were afraid to ask.

Josh Bivens is the director of economic research at The Economic Policy Institute. He says workers should feel motivated when they see their wages aren’t going as far due to inflation. potentially difficultEngage with the employer. 

He said that this gives workers the chance to get higher wages due to rising inflation. But also, it provides them with a bit more leverage than was possible in recent decades. For a while, workers have employers to thank. Who knows how long this will last. We don’t know. If we don’t make big changes in policy that empower workers, it won’t be sustainable. However, for the moment, I believe workers can see higher inflation. Employers in certain industries are desperate for workers and so they decide to take it.

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