Washington

"JOE six-pack gets a raise," proclaim Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists Emanuella Enenajor and Lisa Berlin, commenting on the biggest source of upward pressure on US wages in 2016. The duo found that industries which rank in the bottom 20 per cent by pay are seeing incomes rise at a much faster clip than higher-paying sectors.

A back-of-the envelope analysis conducted by Ms Enenajor and Ms Berlin suggests that minimum wage increases in US states this year account for roughly half of the outperformance in wage growth at the lower end.