President Donald Trump said US workers are already benefitting from his economic policies. Fact check: Have US workers gained $500 in wages this year.

How the White House calculated a $500 pay bump

When we asked the White House press office for Trump’s data source, a spokesperson pointed us to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, seasonally adjusted.

This data shows that median weekly earnings rose from $1,185 in the fourth quarter of 2024 to $1,206 in the second quarter of 2025, which closely aligns with Trump’s second term in office.

Because those figures represent weekly earnings, we multiplied them by 26 to see how much a typical worker gained during the half-year period. Multiplying by 26 weeks produces a cumulative $546 rise in wages. This measure does not include part-time workers, who account for about a quarter of the workforce, or account for inflation.

Experts consider other measures more reliable

Economists said the White House’s chosen dataset isn’t as reliable as a different set – and the more reliable study shows a smaller wage increase.

The other dataset – average weekly earnings of all private-sector employees – is produced monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.