Senior Writer
https://x.com/zac_weisz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-weisz-2ab852119/
Zac Weisz
Senior Writer
Zac reports on global affairs, covering everything from battles between judicial branches and political leaders, to conflicts in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. With the Trump administration keen to alter the world order, though, there’s a heavy emphasis right now on US politics – an area with which he is intimately familiar. Prior to joining GZERO, Zac was a senior national politics correspondent at National Journal, where he covered the 2024 presidential election from its inception to the dramatic finish, as well as major congressional actions during the Biden administration. Prior to journalism, Zac worked as an economic analyst for Oxford Economics, calculating the impact of various tax policies, and of Britain’s exit from the European Union. Born in London, he currently resides in New York City, where you can find him playing football (the original version) or watching it on television while attempting to cook up a storm.
Ari Winkleman
Senior Designer
Ari Winkleman is the lead designer at Eurasia Group and GZERO Media.
Apr 10, 2025
Real wages (nominal wages minus inflation) in the United States have been stagnating for decades, a consequence of policy changes, automation, and lower geographical mobility. Even when real US wages were starting to rise in the wake of the pandemic, high inflation rates quickly wiped out those gains.
But north of the border, it’s been a different story in the last few years, as Canadian wages have started to outpace inflation — helped, in part, by Ottawa’s decision to reestablish a federal minimum wage and index it to price growth. That hourly wage currently stands at $17.75. The US federal minimum wage, meanwhile, has been stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2009, though some states have set wages higher than that.
With Canada’s unemployment at 6.7%, the country’s labor market is far from perfect, but the recent real-wage growth there is bound to make some of its southern neighbors envious. These charts take a look at the recent relationship between nominal wages and inflation in both the US and Canada.
