The share of U.S. firms giving pay raises has nearly tripled since last fall, according to a new survey of business economists by the National Association for Business Economics, although official data on U.S. workers’ earnings haven’t shown any broad acceleration in wage growth, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Some 43 percent of survey respondents said that wages and salaries at their firms have risen in the past three months. No respondents said that wages had fallen, and 57 percent said that wages were unchanged in the second quarter. In the October 2013 survey, just 16 percent of economists said that their companies had given raises in the prior quarter. That number has risen steadily since to 23 percent in January, 35 percent in April and 43 percent now. Raises were spotty by sector, with just 11 percent of goods-producing firms and 35 percent of service firms reporting wage hikes. Some 59 percent of finance, insurance and real estate firms reported a rise in wages, as did 50 percent of transportation, utility, information and communications companies. In the NABE survey, 35 percent of respondents said they expected wages at their firms to rise in the third quarter versus 65 percent who expected no change.
