Define the real wage, Macroeconomics

Assignment Help:

Q. Define the Real wage?

Consider the following scenario. You work full time and during January 2008 you make 2000 euro after tax. A certain basket of goods and services costs 100 euro in January that means that your salary will buy you 20 such baskets.

In February, you receive a 10% wage increase and you make 2200 euro after tax. Does this imply that you can purchase 10% more baskets - which is 22 - in February? Well, not essentially.

Number of baskets that you can purchase in February depends on the possible changes in prices as well. If price of a basket increases by 3% to 103 euro your 2200 will buy you 2200/103 = 21.36 baskets of 7% more than in January. Albeit your wage has increased by 10%, you can only increase your consumption of baskets by 7%. We say that real wage has increased by 7%.

Officially, we define real wage as the nominal wage divided by a price index (characteristically CPI). In the instance above, your real wage was 20 in January and 21.36 in February if we use the price of basket as a price index. Remember that nominal wage will tell you your wage in units of currency whereas the real wage will tell you your wage in baskets of services and goods and this is more significant to us.

So we care about increases in real wages not in the nominal wages. If you found out that Ken who works in another country, got a 50% increase in his wage every year, you can initially be quite happy for Ken. If you then found out that inflation in country where Ken works is 70%, you should actually feel sorry for him. His real wage is 1.5/1.7 = 88% of his real wage year before - a real wage cut by 12%.


Related Discussions:- Define the real wage

Index number, definition and charactoristics of index numbers.problems whil...

definition and charactoristics of index numbers.problems while constructing index numbers

Determining the lm curve, This problem revolves around determining the LM c...

This problem revolves around determining the LM curve, as we did earlier in the term such that money demand (M D ) equals money supply (M S ), however in this instance under differ

Types of taxes and laffer curve, Types of Taxes Which a Government can impo...

Types of Taxes Which a Government can impose on the citizens are as follows: With the theory of taxation covered, we can now move towards the actual menu of the taxes the gover

Cost to heat our homes and businesses, Use the laws of supply and demand to...

Use the laws of supply and demand to explain why the cost to heat our homes and businesses goes up in the winter time. Be sure to explain your answer fully. At least two paragraphs

Nine patients are selected at random, A recent study in NJ showed that 50% ...

A recent study in NJ showed that 50% of all patients will return to the same dentist. Suppose nine patients are selected at random, what is the probability that: (a) exactly five o

Consumption function in the as-ad model, Q. Consumption function in the AS-...

Q. Consumption function in the AS-AD model? Consumption. Suppose that P increases by say 10% whereas real GDP (Y) is constant. Nominal GDP and nominal national will now have

Marginal tax rates imposed on individuals and families, Compared with the s...

Compared with the situation before 1981, the marginal tax rates imposed on individuals and families with high incomes are now lower. What was the top marginal personal income tax r

Quiz, To overcome the stagnant growth it was experiencing for the past 10-1...

To overcome the stagnant growth it was experiencing for the past 10-15 years, Japan undertook which of the following measures? Answer Undertook programs to build infrastructure

Define the labor market, Q. Define the Labor Market? A significant macr...

Q. Define the Labor Market? A significant macroeconomic variable is the total amount of labor which is used in a certain time period. Amount of labor and amount of capital are

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd