evidence: "I want to see Americans experiencing strong wage growth, but for that wage growth to be sustainable, it must be consistent with our inflation target," she said. "Notably, as inflation has come down, real wages have been rising and now exceed pre-pandemic levels, which means that the purchasing power of workers has also been increasing." But even though pay has broadly outrun inflation, many Americans still don't feel better off than they were a few years ago. [...] "Cumulative wage growth since the start of the pandemic has outpaced price growth across the wage distribution, but the most wage growth has been among lower-wage workers," Bank of America economists wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. "This is likely because labor shortages have been the most acute in blue-collar sectors. While recent wage growth has been distributed more evenly across the distribution, the large cumulative wage gains for lower-income consumers since 4Q 2019 have buffered them against the inflation shock."